Saw this on Facebook.
Not sure I really agree without reservation. A friend replied to the post, “replace ‘fat’ with ‘lazy’ and I’ll be in 100% agreement.” Not really sure I agree with that, either.
My dad was 5’7″, 160 lbs, and looked perfectly healthy three months before he died at 76. And he had emphysema bad enough that he probably should have been on portable oxygen. Are you saying that because he looked otherwise healthy, he shouldn’t have been allowed to use one of these motorized carts to shop at the local big box store?
My 78-year-old father-in-law is a little skinny dude who looks healthy, too, but his knees are shot to hell. Going to tell him he can’t use a scooter? (He has his own, anyway, thanks.) My 92-year-old stepfather also looks healthy till you realize his knees are shot, too. No scooter for him, either? (He can’t use one because he’s nearly blind, but again, thanks anyway.)
Before October 2013, my wife (who is pleasantly plump, but certainly not “fat” in that unique and appalling “people of Wal-Mart” way) had a hip that was so bad that she almost couldn’t walk to the store from the handicapped spot in the parking lot, let alone walk around on her own in the store. Would you say that she couldn’t use one of these carts before she had her hip replaced because, just by looking at her, you couldn’t tell she could barely walk because her hip socket had almost completely collapsed and the ball joint was grinding into her flesh? If you would, fuck you up the ass. Then maybe you’ll understand pain a little better.*
In my own case, I won’t use the motorized carts on general principle because I’m too damn stubborn to admit that sometimes I really can’t walk very well. But I have bad knees and ankles from too many years working construction in my misspent youth. And yeah, I’m 100 pounds overweight because I sit at a desk all day and can’t really get enough exercise to work it off anymore. But I’ll sit on my ass at home rather than admit that I have to use the scooter.
I reserve judgment on “fat ass lazy” these days. Besides, it’s not for me to say; I figure folks who don’t really need to use the scooters will face a higher Tribunal, eventually. And as an old sinner myself, that’s OK with me.
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* By the way, her hip wasn’t bad because she was overweight. She had what was finally diagnosed as congenital hip dysplasia from birth that nobody discovered (or had any particular reason to be looking for) until she was over 50, when the weak joint finally failed. There was speculation that if she wasn’t a swimmer and spent much of her work day in the water, it would have failed years earlier.