Lookin' Good?

Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

Whenever you're trying to look better than others

or get the better of others, things fall apart

and everyone ends up at the others' throats.

James 3:16 [The Message]

 Last night, my oldest daughter treated me to a new (for me) New York experience.  She had made reservations at Centrico, a Mexican restaurant in Tribeca run by executive chef Aaron Sanchez, a star on the Food Network.  It was a glorious spring evening, so we asked to be seated outside on the veranda.  We were placed at a tiny table for two, directly across from a table for four occupied by a couple in their 20's, a teenage girl, and a woman in her 40's.  

Over the next hour or so, we came to know the foursome at the next table quite well, because their conversation was conducted many decibles above that normally needed for table conversation.  It became obvious that the couple were planning their wedding, and the bride-to-be talked and talked, with only an occasional comment from the groom.  The teenage girl rarely said anything, perhaps because getting a word in edgewise was next to impossible.  The star of this show, however, was the woman.  It was immediately obvious that she was not a New Yorker (Tennessee, actually), but that didn't matter, because she knew absolutely everything about everything, bar none, and was more than happy to share her great wisdom with her younger relatives.  The more she drank, the louder she became and the more she "knew."  I don't know if she was trying to impress the younger people or everyone else on the terrace, but even when she was dead wrong on a topic, she was absolutely correct.  We exited our table just as she was waving her credit card in the air and proclaiming to all and sundry that "...when Aunt Laura comes to town, Aunt Laura pays!!!"  I found myself hoping that Aunt Laura didn't visit them very often, for the sake of their eardrums, if nothing else.

I heartily agree with James that when you are trying to look better than everyone else, you eventually end up looking pathetic.  If someone else in the room wants to "one-up" your one-upmanship, things can go south in a hurry.  In James' letter (and in my book as well), calm and gracious beats loud and blustery any day of the week.