Letting it all hang out

Last Friday night, I got together with some neighbors for cocktails, and we got to talking about people choosing beach attire without any regard to height or weight. (This all stemmed from a discussion about the FUPA. Google it if you're curious.)

Two of the neighbors recently honeymooned in Europe and told me that the beaches in France were basically anything-goes zones. I recalled for them my growing up in Florida, where I would see old, saggy, and/or obese people in bikinis at the beach.

Go ahead and call it gross. But you know something?

There's a part of me that really, really admires people like that. When I see the fat guy on the beach in a too-small bathing suit, I might be a little grossed out, but my overriding thought is, "How nice that must be for him -- to not give a damn what people think."

That's a guy who looked in the mirror (or maybe not even that) and said, "I look fine."

When I think of how liberating that would be, I envy it. Okay, so the other people at the beach might not like the view, but so what? Show me a guy who's spilling way over his Speedo and I'll show you a guy who's totally comfortable with himself. When I see a woman wearing a halter top in spite of her avalanche of back-fat, I think to myself, "She saw something hot in the mirror today. Good for her!"

I'm not saying I don't want to be the somewhat modest person I am. What I am saying, however, is that there is an upside to "letting it all hang out." You can focus on other, more important things and not be burdened with thoughts of whether you look okay or not.