Than they are

We’ve probably said it before, perhaps often enough that it sounds like a broken record.  It never seems to annoy us so why does it when someone else says it?

What is it I’m talking about?

When that “pretty boy” middle-aged man mouths off saying, how people always tell him he doesn’t look his age but 10, 15 or 20 years younger.

Someone within my reach said this recently.  My first reaction was to pinch my nose because it smelled like a skunk had entered my mindscape.

It’s well-known that oftentimes when we find annoying the company of someone, their behavior or what they say, it’s because it mirrors something about ourselves that deep down inside, maybe at a sub-conscious level, we find annoying. 

So, in my continuing personal growth of ridding myself of my own annoyances, I’ve resolved to no longer banter my audiences with prideful boasts about how someone told me I don’t look my age.  I’ve decided to take a different approach.

This approach pays no disrespect to the person paying me the compliment, but it doesn’t create a “tit for tat” obligation for me to return the favor by uttering the falsity, “And so do you.”

Rather, I’ll take the compliment, thank the person and demonstrate appreciation of their benevolent intention.  Then, I’ll privately remind myself that I do look my age.

Oftentimes, compliments like this are given by people who look older than they are.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum