Fat Legs, The Post Office and Competition
My friend mailed me a package using 2 day priority mail. She mailed it 2 weeks ago and it hasn't arrived, so I've been on hold with USPS for 25 minutes and I'm listening to their information recording. They have the audacity to say "for delivery you can rely on" over and over and it's just not the truth. I mean, they are notorious for losing packages. I understand that thier bankruptcy problem partially stems had to do with thier retirement escrow requirement, but it's pretty obvious that they really just don't run an efficient business.
Anyway, it got me to thinking about how people compliment themselves when it's not justified, but also how people uncompliment themselves without justification too. For example, last week, I wore my favorite boots . . . who am I kidding, I wear my favorite boots almost every day. They are black and pretty awesome. Stylish, but still comfortable. They are falling apart, but it gives them a charactery worn, hip look. Anyway, this particular day, a woman walks past me and says that she loves my books. I say, "Thank you".
Now, this woman was just a regular looking woman, not overweight, definitely not obese, maybe a little chunkier than average, but if I had to describe her outside of the context of this story, I would definitely not mention her weight because it was just normal. I probably would mention her hair. It was a longer than a Dora the explorer bob and I really wouldn't be able to pinpoint her nationality if I had to - she could be Latino or she could be Middle Eastern. Is that racist? Anyway, none of that really matters. My point is that her hair stood out more to me because I love those Dora bobs.
So, after I say "Thank you", she continues on to say that she could never wear those boots because her legs were too fat. I smiled and walked away, but as I did, I thought, "What a ridiculously false statement!" She wasn't fat at all and she could definitely wear the boots and she would look good and if perchance she didn't look good in the boots it would have nothing to do with her having fat legs, mostly because her legs were not fat, but also because I've seen women with actual fat legs look great in boots cut like the ones I had on. I don't like ending sentences with prepositions, but I refuse to edit what I write on this site, so I will. Anyway, back to this woman. As I was driving, I kept thinking about it. A person would have to have abnormal tree trunk size legs for thier legs not to fit into these particular boots.
Then, I realized that she was basically trying to insult herself in order to give me a compliment, which I'm beginning to see more and more is human nature. I started feeling sorry for her lack of self esteem and thinking about how pitiful it is that she felt the need to do that and had such a skewed self image of herself . . . then, suddenly, I realized that I DO THE SAME THING!! OH NO! I will give myself about 50%. So, 50 percent of the time, I give a straight compliment, but the other 50%, I feel the need to make myself the lesser in order to give a compliment to someone else. Anyway, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'd rather be like the USPS and give myself false compliments because I know that if I do that I will grow into my greatness as opposed to downplaying myself.
The other day, I saw a post comparing Beyonce to Janet Jackson. It's the same principal to me. Why do we have to make one better than the other? Of course, everyone will have a favorite, but I don't have to point out Beyonce's flaws in order to make Janet Jackson great or vice versa. The reality is that they are both great performers. Anyway, I'm going to pay closer attention to my words and make sure that I'm not insulting myself or others in my daily speech from now on . . . insert non preprosition here.
I guess this should apply to the USPS too, so I'll add, they do deliver more mail than they don't deliver and that's a plus. I hope I get my package though.
