Earlier this week it was announced that Red, White and Boom is being postponed.
Several in our newsroom talked about our trips to the event. I said I had been once and hated it. Managing Editor Chad Williamson said he too had been there once and hated it. I told him to imagine how much FatMac would have hated it.
Reporter Kaylene Petrovia asked why I referred to FatMac in the third person.
“Is he a totally different person?” she asked, having never known me when I was big. (For those of you who didn’t know, at one point I weighed more than 500 lbs.)
It was a legitimate question and I thought for a moment.
“Yes,” I said. “It really is like a different person.”
I’d like to say that I am the same person, just heathier. But in truth, I am not. I am actually a very different person. I am a better father, husband, son-and-law, community member and employee. I am more outgoing and I take more risks.
I am active in a way that FatMac would have dreaded thinking about, let alone actually doing.
I truly enjoy life more.
FatMac feared buying clothes because his size had limited availability. When I was big, one of my fears was tearing a pair of pants or shirt and not being able to find a replacement locally.
Honestly, when looking at vehicles, size and fit was the first thing to be considered.
I dreaded summer because I was constantly hot.
FatMac avoided going places because he didn’t want to walk.
He avoided making plans because he knew he would dread them. When plans were made, the amount of walking necessary was a legitimate factor to be considered.
FatMac avoided crowds because he hated being crammed so close to other people… Ok, this one isn’t that different today.
I know I just went through all the ways I am different now, but it does bother me when people treat me different than they did FatMac. While I am different, these people don’t know that so it seems superficial that they treat me better, or sometimes worse, than FatMac.
I still fear the return FatMac. Part of the reason I work out daily, and sometimes twice, is that I am terrified of being that person again. I do not fear death, but I also have too much to live for — my wife, my kids, a mission that God has given to me.
Eternity lasts forever so there is no sense starting it early.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.