‘There was shrinkage! Shrinkage!” – George Costanza

For years, my various physicians let me skate by.

I would dutifully (if trepidatiously) hop onto the scales for my weight assessment, but I was allowed to fudge on my Body Mass Index by self-identifying my height.

Not so this last visit. In an “Up against the wall!” moment reminiscent of a gambling den raid, I was confronted with the realization that I have shrunk two inches since my peak. (Who needs tongue depressors when the clinic has self-image depressors?)

Granted, I had already downgraded my self-identification several years ago when I was at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama and a ceiling-mounted laser doohickey gave me the unsolicited information that I was one inch shorter than I thought. (“Second opinion: that comb-over ain’t foolin’ anybody! Better self-deprecation through........

© Yuma Sun