I know what you’re thinking: “Nobody wants to see an old guy with his shirt off in public.” Well, let me allay your fears: it wasn’t at a public event or concert or anything. It was just on the sidewalk across the street from my house next to the lake/pond I run around. I had to get the sweat-soaked shirt off of me after an unusually hot run. It felt SO GOOD to get that shirt off. First, because it immediately allowed me to start cooling off, and second, because I felt confident enough with my body to allow people to see it without feeling self-conscious about it.

I know. I KNOW. Who cares about what other people think, right? Well, it’s not about that. I really don’t care what they think, but I care about how other people are affected by me. There’s a difference. I don’t want to offend or otherwise make people uncomfortable with me showing some skin.

People seem to be more uncomfortable with overweight people. I don’t know why that is; it could be because they’re shallow (they don’t like to see people who aren’t “Beautiful” in their eyes), or it’s because the bigger you are, the easier it is to take notice. Perhaps it’s their not wanting to face what they look like with a shirt off. Either way, I just don’t want to make people uncomfortable when they see me without a shirt on. That’s not a concern anymore (I think).

There were probably a half dozen people at the lake fishing when I walked a lap around it with no shirt on, and nobody seemed to take notice or be affected by it. And that’s good. Well, there was one grandma that kept whistling at me (sexual harassment!) but she does that even when I have my shirt on, so I’m used to it.