Arianne Cohen - The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High

The TALL Book

The TALL Book

A Celebration of Life from

on High

ARIANNE COHEN, 6'3"

Illustrations by Myra Fourley

Copyright 2009 by Arianne Cohen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

All papers used by Bloomsbury USA are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Cohen, Arianne.

The tall book: a celebration of life on high/Arianne Cohen.1st U.S. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

eISBN: 978-1-60819-111-6

1. Stature, TallPsychological aspects. 2. Stature, TallSocial aspects. I. Title.

QP84.C63 2009

612.6'61dc22

2008048215

First U.S. Edition 2009

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Designed by Rachel Reiss

Typeset by Westchester Book Group

Printed in the United States of America by Quebecor World Fairfield

For tall people everywhere, and honorary tall person Bre Levy.

In memory of Sandy Allen, the worlds tallest woman,and the best tall ambassador the earth has ever seen.

Contents

Because everyone asks: What is the definition of tall?

You are tall if youre taller than the people

around you. Height is relative.

You could say that this book began at the Bethlehem Public Library in Delmar, New York, in 1989, when I discovered that no library in the universe carried a book about tall people.

This was a devastating blow to a 5'3" eight-year-old. Up until that day, the stacks had cleared up a host of childhood confusions about birds and bees and bases, particularly The Dictionary ofSlang, which I consulted regularly. I had great faith in the library.

But that afternoon, I had a more important concern. A morning visit to the pediatrician had prompted him to add another dot on my growth chart and announce, Youre gonna be taller than the president! That would be Ronald Regan, 6'1". I just nodded. Of course I would be taller than the president. Thats totally normal.

For the rest of the day, the line bounced around in my head, accompanied by a freakish image of me towering over Ronald Reagan and his petite wife Nancy, roughly the size of my then-right thigh, while I endured a typical school afternoon of standing at the back of the line and responding to the name Amazon Ari.

As soon as the bell rang, I trotted myself over to the card catalog to investigate this tallness thing. The subject cards skipped from talkovigor to tall buildings. The Dewey Decimal index didnt evenassign a classification number to tall people. Surely the world kidded.

I alerted the reference librarian that a pivotal subject card had fallen out of the card catalog. She waddled over and examined the situation through her bifocals. Dear, I dont think thats a topic that authors write nonfiction books about. But we do have a few books about short height. Would you like to see those? No, thanks. What about Sarah, Plain and Tall, dear? Have you read that novel? Yes. And Sarahs not particularly tall.

Igor Talkov, by the way, is a Soviet rock n roll artist with a political bent. And the then-worlds tallest building was the Chicagos Sears Tower.

When theres no book about your topic, its like your whole issue doesnt exist. My concerns were deflated, automatically relegated to a topic of no particular importance, which made me feel dumb. I was left to scrounge for information from my surroundings. My mothers thoughts on the matter were concise: that I was a tall glass of water and that its whats on the inside that matters. Meanwhile, my classmates spent all their time telling me how freaking tall I was, as dutifully noted by five million inquiries of Hows the weather up there? Mixed messaging.

So for the next two decades I decided to drink the Kool-Aid and tell myself that its whats on the inside that matters. I assured my mind that being tall was just another trait, like the texture of my hair (frizzy) and the color of my skin (ashen), an inconsequential exterior beyond my control. I thought about it often, but then told myself that I had more important things to think about. My height was the elephant in the room. Telling yourself not to think about the elephant is not a good long-term strategy.

I graduated into the adult world, and my inner monologue often went something like this:

Wow, I feel really awkward towering over my short friend/boyfriend/boss... Arianne, just act normal. Why did everyonein the restaurant turn around and look at me when Iwalked in? Is my fly open?... Arianne, they stare at everyone.

And on and on, silently in my head, for twenty years. This is why tall people are a quirky bunch.

And then in 2005, my book agent spoke those magical words: Is there anything youd like to write a book about? Well, actually, now that you mention it.

_____________________

Early in my research, I attended the annual European Tall Club convention, Europatreffen. Only in a room full of tall people does it become apparent that height is a pivotal piece of identity, that height was the most defining force in our lives. I told how my height had determined my choice of sports (swimming) and boyfriends (tall), my social circle (tall), my college (tall), and my personality (big enough to fill the tall).

Theres a lot, I learned, going on in Tall World. Talls annually earn $789 more per inch than our average-height counterparts, racking up $1.5 million in extra assets over forty years. We are smarter, safer, and more powerful than our neighbors, and we live longer than they do too. We are also evolutionarily favored, are rarely victims of crime, and excel in professional, academic, and athletic arenas. We are the CEOs, presidents, and captains of industry, leaders who control the majority of the worlds wealth and fill up the enrollment registers at top universities. In summary, were wonderful, successful, and fun. Remember, the root of Amazon is the same as that of amazing.

Being tall, I learned, has meaning far beyond just seeing over peoples heads. We share the balancing act of being the chosen people, yet we live in a society that is not built for us. How many times have you thought: I am a nice, friendly tall person who obeyslaws and pays taxes. Why cant I fit into a bus seat? Its a ripe paradox.

I was floored to find that all these details together create a firm cultural context for tallness. Whoah, I thought. Theres a tall culture. Seven days of living within that culture changed my life. It reaffirmed all the weird thoughts Id had in my head for twenty years. I became an unabashed tall person. My inner monologue became empowered: Short friend/boyfriend/boss, stop making me feel physically