SHORT MAN SYNDROME, OR ???

All day today I have been debating with myself about the thought for the day.  The reason for the debate is that although both have a good dose of humor, one is safe for work and the other is on the borderline of PG17, if you get my drift.  So, in the title I put the one that is the safer, even though it is the one that I would just as soon avoid.  After all, at 5'3" and shrinking, I would want to stay away from it.  But, there are some fun things that have happened to me along the road of life that make this a family environment topic although there is one little drop of salaciousness  in it.  It's a long story, but you won't mind it, because after all, short is short, right?
When I reached 13 years old I stood 5'4.5".  When I was twice that age I stood 5'4.5".  When I was 5x that age, I stood at 5'3.75"  I am now sitting, but when I do get vertical, my pompom only reaches 5'3" off the floor.  If I live long enough, I'll probably sink into negative verticality and thereby get myself into the Guinness Book of Records.  I think that one of the reasons why I decided to hate basketball is my lack of height.  Of course I always said that I disliked basketball because it is a girls' game.  I always said that in hockey, I could always crush the creep with the puck while in basketball I had to wave at him on the way by because to touch him would be a foul.  That was not then nor it is now my kind of game.  I could never come up with a good alibi for not playing football, so I always blamed my parents for that.  Hey, when falling behind, punt, right?  I also blamed my lack of height for my inability to play tennis well.  That, my friends is pure stercus taurorum.  The truth of the matter is that I am at a nearly total loss at games where a racket or a paddle are involved.  I mean, come on, how tall do you have to be to excel at table tennis?  Enough of my athletic prowess, oops, I mean, lack thereof.
I never really thought that I was over-compensating for my short stature until one time a senior manager who was more politician than manager made a disobliging comment about my aplomb and poise on the public speaker's podium at a company function.  I let it go because I knew that with his lack of true ability, I would outlast him anyway.  In fact, three months later I was drawing up his termination papers.  Some years later, though, I came across a situation that made me laugh and realize just how sensitive I can be about this reality with which I live.  I was working as a senior manager at a Mexican company and there were 11 women working in the department that I headed.  The first thing that I noticed during the first departmental meeting that I held was the fact that each and every one of those women was taller than I was then and certainly than I am now.  I would catch myself joking about it a lot.  It didn't take me long to come to my senses and realize that I was not comfortable with the situation.  So I tried to get over it.  Besides, wasn't I the hammer?
I think that the funniest thing that ever happened to me, even in the days when I was 5'4.5" was when I had a collision with a woman in a new office that we were setting up.  It was a great job.  It was for Lionel trains when they had set up shop in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.  We were moving from our original office space to more spacious accommodations.  Things were hectic.  We only had two telephones for 10 people, one rest room available for the time being and absolutely no defined office areas, not even fuzzy wall modular ones.  One day, it was my turn to answer one of the phones.  A call came in for Diana who worked clear across the open area from where I was sitting.  I put the phone down, wiggled out of my seat, turned right to go around my desk and as I turned left, I walked into the 6' Diana, nose first only to have my head enveloped by her generous mammary endowments.  I was stunned, and started to laugh as she shook her head and said something about &*%$@+g midgets.  After which we, both of us, became the butt of jokes and snide remarks around the office for the next few days.  We both survived it.  She, in fact made a remark about my overcoming short man syndrome by enjoying plowing into well-endowed women at work.  Trust me, this is one story that I do tell time and again.  It is one of those moments that we were warned against when we were in Catholic school.  It is forbidden to recount such events because of the morbidly lustful emotions that they bring to mind in the telling.  So, you have been dutifully reprimanded for willingly participating in a moment of forbidden "morbid delectation" the literal English translation of the Latin name for that sin.
After all that, you're wondering about the thought that I avoided.  I know you are.  It is about a professional person I know who has been adversely affected by the downturn in the economy.  Yes, it happens to everyone.  It is a longer story that just these few sentences.  It could be funny if it weren't so sad.  Prayers are in order here.