To See Ourselves as Others See Us

I observe all these older ladies, all with fat bellies, parading in profile back to the dressing room after water aerobics. Even the skinny ones have protruding bellies. “I don’t want to be like them when I grow up,” I think to myself.(Of course, I’m probably older than the oldest of them.) “I’m going to exercise and keep in shape.” Ugh. Remember these are folks at the gym who are at least getting out.

Then yesterday when Amy took my picture for my blog on the new head dress, I saw myself. I am one of those old women with a big belly--fifty pounds overweight, all in my abdomen.

I feel like the haughty lady who didn’t know a louse was crawling on her elegant hat in Robert Burns poem “The Louse”.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!