It's 2:00 in the afternoon. You are freaking starving, and you won't be home until at least 4:00. But wait! You forgot that it's presentation day in class! And look--one of the groups forgot to do any real work so they brought treats for the class! O frabjous day! This will tide you over until dinner! How did they know you'd need this so much today...
And then the pretty, well-dressed b-word next to you curtly shakes her head "no" before passing the treat plate to you because she is a Party Pooper. Now what do you do? Taking the treat automatically contrasts you to her: on one hand, we have a girl who knows when to say when. A girl who possesses self-restraint. On the other, we have a girl with a weakness for Halloween cookies. A girl whose whole shopping list consists of those (delicious) circus animal cookies and Cheez-Its.
You sit there with the tray, frantically weighing the pros and cons, knowing that no one actually cares whether or not you take a cookie, but also knowing that this could be a turning point for you--the moment when you become a healthy person! One of those yoga-types, who never drinks soda and thinks dessert means granola...
But obviously you take a cookie; you really are hungry. But thanks to the Party Pooper, what was once a glimmering tender mercy now tastes an awful lot like shame.
I always take the cookie, no shame... because I don't want to be labeled as the "pretty, well-dressed b-word"... mostly not the b-word part.
ReplyDeleteI think we all see the "treat replacing actual work" at church a lot too. My Sunday school teacher had a stash of double mint gum sticks with masking tape on them and she would have us write "'stick' to the _____" (insert whatever church subject you want). The tactic covers both secular and spiritual laziness.
ReplyDeletei think i've been both. suck.
ReplyDelete