Worms

Lawrence Toppman:

A reader e-mailed me to say we in America are too obsessed with body image -- I can't argue with that -- and our national mania for weight loss has become unhealthy, which is certainly true at some level. (The anorexia and bulimia level, if not before.)

He went on to say there's little point in fretting about a few pounds -- even 20, in my case -- when we "are all going to be eaten by worms." I assume he wrote metaphorically, rather than suggesting that giant night crawlers from a B-grade science fiction movie will devour us all.

Eat (copiously), drink and be merry, for tomorrow we take a dirt nap. I've heard that used to justify bad behavior from drug addiction to philandering, though rarely as a reason to double up on potato chips. But if we all felt like that, why would we do anything positive at all?

I'm changing for my own sake, not others'. I didn't much care what people thought about my weight (possibly excepting my physician) before January, and I don't fret about it now. If portion control staves off the ravening vermicelli for a few extra years, I can spend those years listening to Beethoven and reading Agatha Christie and looking out my kitchen window at robins in my back yard -- who are eating worms right this minute.