Meet Nathan. He's a tough guy!

Okay, I'm watching the Olympics on TV again. And along comes this Nike ad. Go ahead, watch it. It's only one minute long.

This is Nathan. He is 12 years old. He's from London, Ohio. Greatness is not beyond his reach, nor is it for any of us.

I don't know if Nathan really has greatness ahead of him, but I forgive Nike a lot for putting his image out there as an example of admirable striving.

When we're in a panic about the "obesity epidemic," it is just so easy to demean kids (and adults) who are fat. Look -- we're fat because there is a more food around than our species evolved to have easy access to. We pack it on, genetically programmed to try to defend our bodies against scarcity.

I'm glad we live in a society in which calories -- if not always healthy foods -- are readily available. As a species, we don't quite know how to cope with this unfamiliar abundance. But it is worth remembering that too much of a good thing is still better than not enough at all.