I was a marketing major in college. Maybe this is why I have never been able to break my habit of analyzing advertisements that cross my path. Last week I was driving down the interstate and a new billboard caught my eye. ‘Half the weight, twice the person!’ it announced.
The billboard did its job well. I forgot all about my car, the cars around me, the road….emerging from my reverie mere moments before the three collided. Impressive.
The billboard’s sponsor was a company called ‘No Weight.’ ‘None?’ I thought. ‘No weight at all?’ Now, don’t get me wrong – after a decade working in the sales and marketing industry, I admire all the human creativity infused into the advertising campaigns we are bombarded with on a daily basis. But I have to draw the line at suggesting that the less we weigh, the more we are worth.
Is that true? Right now, think of the people you love the most. Think of the people who make your face light up just to see them. Do you value them according to how much they weigh?
Think of the people who love you. Think of the people who get so excited to see you….do they want to be with you more when you weigh less?
If the answer is ‘yes’, they probably work for a company called ‘No Weight.’ The rest of us want to be with people who are loving, and lovable. Period, The End.
My close friend and business associate David passed away last month – on April 18, 2008, to be exact. I had never actually met David because he lived in a different state, and although we have worked together and talked on a weekly and sometimes even daily basis for four years, the opportunity to meet in person just never arose. But his talents and heart were integral in the formation and expansion of my outreach work, and I miss him terribly. He is irreplaceable.
I never knew how much David weighed. I didn’t care. I did notice that my heart weighed heavier and heavier as I grieved his death, showing me how much I cared for him. David’s ex-girlfriend suffered from an eating disorder. He cared about helping victims recover. He was a heavyweight in compassion, and that was just one of the many reasons why I loved him.
I miss David. I miss me, when I am wasting my time worrying about how much I weigh. I missed five minutes of my own life unraveling the complex tangle of emotions one simple billboard evoked in me. I won’t make that mistake again.
David, I dedicate this column to you. You are deeply loved, and sorely missed.
‘No Weight?’ NO WAY.
Warmly and with HOPE,
Shannon
