The Naked Accountant
This social media thing is about being transparent. exposed. Naked in a manner of speaking. So this is a blog post that will expose me a bit. I had an experience today as I do every day, but there is an important message here that I want to put out there. So I am on vacation and we went to a water park today. Rapids Water Park in Riviera Beach Fla. I noticed the signs shortly after we got there that talked about a 250 Lbs weight limit. I know I am about 265 so I thought it might be an issue, but I figured I would give it a try. So first ride I actually asked the woman (ride attendant) if it was better to ride alone or with someone if I was close to the limit. She asked me to step on the scale. The signs all said it was “Up to you” to adhere to the limit leaving me with the impression that they wouldn’t even have a scale, so I was surprised to find they did. She weighs me and I weigh in about 275. I am very clear that I am a “Big Boy” and I need to lose some weight. That’s why I am starting Jenny Craig as soon as I return from this trip. Meantime I figured I was in the clear. I made it down the slide with no issues. Then we go on to the next ride which was a long line up many many flights of stairs. Finally we get to the top and by this time a huge line has formed behind us. As I am stepping up to go next the ride attendant takes one look at me and asks me to step onto the scale. So I did and before the scale could even balance out he stopped it and said, “no way”. Now I had no problem accepting that I couldn’t go on the ride. I didn’t even mind the idea that I had to go back down the stairs after climbing up all of these stairs only to find I was not able to go on the ride. Sure the memories came back from when I was a little kid and I was “too short” and I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait until I was tall enough and then I would never have to worry about not being allowed on a ride again for the rest of my life. Even this I could accept, that here I was as a full blown adult and I couldn’t ride a ride. Here was what was really difficult for me..
Anyone who has ever experienced a “party” lifestyle has heard of the walk of shame. That’s when you wake up in someone else’s place after a night out drinking and you have to walk home un-showered and with your hair all messed up from the night before. It is especially pronounced when it happens in a place like NYC where you literally are walking across the city in this state. Well that was NOTHING compared to what I was about to experience. I looked at the Ride attendant and as I looked around for an escape route I realized I was going to have to walk “THROUGH” all of these people who were on line waiting to go on the ride. Down many flights of stairs, slowly because they are wet from the water and repeatedly having to ask people to “excuse me” as I was walking down. It was like I might as well have shouted out, “EXCUSE ME! FAT BASTARD COMING THROUGH I’M TOO FAT TO RIDE THIS RIDE AND I NEED YOU TO MOVE OUT OF MY WAY AND NOTICE SPECIFICALLY HOW FAT I AM. Thank you!” Sure enough this is the exact path the ride attendant sent me on. Thanks buddy! Couldn’t they have the scale at the bottom of the ride?!
I’ve had some pretty embarrassing moments in my life but I am pretty sure this one tops them all! I had to really take a look at this! Who’s fault is it, really? I’ve been “trying” without really “trying” to lose weight for years. There is no question. I like food. In fact I love it and after quitting drugs and alcohol as well as cigarettes sometimes it feels like that is all that is left. But I am about to kick the food habit! I have to. There are no coincidences. I have no doubt, not even an ounce of it that this is an experience I needed to have in order to move me into this next phase of my life. On Tuesday I start. Kicking Coke and Cigarettes was easy. This is hard because I need to go into the “Lion’s Den” a few times of day and wrestle with that lion – that love I have for food.
In the meantime I had to do what I’ve learned to do on a spiritual level. Recognizing the timing of this and how important that is was part of it, but in the moment I had to find a way to turn this negative into a positive. I found the way. The next ride my brother and his wife and kids wanted to go on was a huge ride. I insisted that they go. Why should my shape ruin their good time? Meantime I asked my sister-in-law, Chaya for the key she was holding to the locker so I could go put a shirt on for starters, but I also grabbed my Sony Handycam and came back to the ride they were going on which had a specific observation area in the perfect spot for this ride. I got some amazing video which I will post a little later on.
The moral of this story for me is that whatever happens, no matter how horrified we may be in the face of the experience, we have to find a spot in our thinking where we remind ourselves that we need to find a way to turn a negative into a positive. I read a story in The Committed Life that talks of a family where these holocaust survivors were in upstate New York celebrating the wedding of their grandchildren and were attacked and killed by some common thugs. Imagine surviving the holocaust only to be killed all these years later by some common thugs. The family should have been down right angry! I know I personally would want revenge in the form of a slow painful death for those thugs. Not this family. They spent the rest of their years forming and building a foundation that raised a fortune and put it towards preventing these kinds of crimes from happening to others. So no matter what happens we have to look for a way to make the world a better place. No matter what.
Maybe in a year I will go back to that water park ripped and I can go on any ride I want to in that park. It really is up to me! I need to be as passionate about getting into shape as I am about business. Passion is always the key. And if I don’t feel like I have it, I can always ask G-d for the passion to keep me moving in the right direction towards a balanced and healthy life. I know I can do that and when I succeed I will be an example to people of yet one more thing that anyone can accomplish, if only they want it badly enough to be willing to give up everything for it. I’ve given up a lot to have the life I have. This is just one more thing.
There is nothing I cannot accomplish. I know this better than anyone and I hope you know this too (for yourself)
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