Je parle Anglais

I am now blogging (God help me for using that as a present participle) on an English based homepage. Please don't find yourselves under the false impression that this will add to the quantity of my blogs, but rest assured that the few blogs I post will be done with far less burden and confusion on my part. I am currently in the "shop" here in Paris proper and wanted to share just a small word of wisdom with you all.

Today I shaved. Not a monumental experience by any means, certainly not worthy to write hope about (which I seem to be currently contradicting) but notable nonetheless. I haven't fully shaved since last August, so it was quite a shock to those at the office who have never known me shorn. Amid the congratulations, ill thought out compliments, and obligatory ackowledgement of my once invisible face, one comment stood out. An assumingly well-intentioned office worker made the "compliment" that I look "thinner." Now as a precursor, I'm not under the false impression that I'm grossly out of shape or painful to look at. Some close friends and family are reasonably concerned about my cookie intake, but for the most part, I'm relatively healthy. However, at the comment that I am now "thinner" I can only assume this is in direct connection to the far less flattering "less thick."

The moral of this worthless story is just to say that unless as a close friend you've been confided in that a certain person has poor self esteem and a concious acknowledgement of a weight problem, never, in proposed compliment, inform him or her that they are thinner. This can only end in them pondering and then subsequently blogging about their obese past, presnt, and future.

Tell them they look great. Tell them they look good. Tell them anything that doesn't directly compare to their poorer past self. You'll find they'll see its harder to move away from that grotesque human of mere minutes ago than you have. They'll have some understandable connection to them.

Gig em, Whoop, Ponder
glenn