Fat Talk

"A Couple" by Fernando Botero, 1999

Exactly three months ago today I had a heart attack. Since then I have changed the way I eat and lost six pounds. Obviously my rate of weight loss--two pounds per month or half a pound a week-- is nothing to boast about, nevertheless I'm into those black corduroy pants that have mocked me for the last three years every time I open my closet door. The far greater dividend is how I feel, which is better than before. Admit it: Being overweight sucks.

Which makes you wonder why nearly 70% of American adults are either overweight or obese. I say it sucks for many reasons, but mostly because, according to the American Heart Association, "Obesity increases your risk of serious health problems such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and more." (God only knows what "more" could be.)

Okay, relax: Not all fat people will die young, or even from being fat. In fact, there's an old Japanese proverb that says, “If you have the pleasant experience of eating something you have not tasted before, your life will be lengthened by 75 days.” What a great theory: Adventure eating leads to long life! (If we put that theory into practice in this country, the average U. S. citizen will live to be 125 and weigh approximately 1,700 pounds at death.)

While being fat is certainly not considered a positive, paintings of fat people are selling like hotcakes, which for some reason are always selling well. One artist in particular, Fernando Botero, has enjoyed a lengthy and successful international career painting (and sculpting and drawing) obese figures in all sorts of situations. Now 85 and fairly thin himself, the Colombian native has taken the #1 spot on People With Money’s list of the 10 highest-paid painters for 2017, with an estimated $75 million in earnings.