The conventional wisdom is that Napoleon overcompensated for his short height by seeking power, war and conquest. He was not actually below average height. If he had been, I am sure he would have shot more than a few of his generals. Being of a child-like height results in others treating a person as if they have a comparable intelligence, sometimes as if every disagreement is a tantrum worthy of the kindergarten set. I find it infuriating. It is so unfortunate that both of those perceptions tend to operate on a balancing scale in the perceptions of others.
If a petite person is kind, generous, and of a cheerful disposition, said person is treated as if their acumen is lacking. Others will treat true, valid anger from that person as a farce, nothing to be taken seriously. Insight honed after years of experience will be ignored as if coming from the mouth of some inept bar patron rhapsodizing on the state of government.
This is so unfortunate. I want to be nicer. I do. I have tried it experimentally on a few occasions but nothing got done and nobody took me seriously. On the third day I always lose my temper. Et voila! The house is clean and there are no crunchy socks lying in the middle of the living room. All of my belongings have miraculously been returned to me, albeit not in their proper places.
When I am being kind, I sincerely wish that simply asking were adequate, or quickly explaining a process. I find it unfortunate that if I am being nice, I must provide extra diagrams and defer to a higher authority on the subject. Why should I have to read the manual and find the proper page just to prove what I already know? It wastes so much time when it would be easier for everyone to just follow my instructions in the first place. If I were not absolutely certain, I would say so. When I stop being nice, this stressful extra work no longer becomes necessary.
I have frequently had much taller friends show a great deal of surprise when they realize that I am physically so small. Apparently, I project myself as a much larger person of my actual age, literally. I have been experimenting with maintaining a particular mood around new people I meet and having them guess both my age and height after the third meeting. New information is scrapped if I end up standing less than three feet within their personal radius. There is a six inch, seven year estimate discrepancy between kindness and my more normal seriousness. Perhaps this is why people earn a thousand dollars more per year per inch of additional height over the average. Is it the perceptions of their abilities, or the fact that more gets done when you don't have to convince your coworkers you are right?
