Anna Marie reminds me regularly that not everything in life is a competition. I reluctantly agree. But, I believe I can make anything a competition, and sometimes I get a little confirmation. A couple of recent examples:
- I challenged Anna Marie to see who could have the most friends on Facebook. At first she maintained that she would not be participating in the competition. Everyday I updated the score for her and told her about the new friends I had invited (sure, I like these people, but I needed to boost my score!). Even though she “wasn’t participating,” she held the lead for many weeks. My struggle to overtake her finally paid off and my total surpassed hers (for at least 3 days). Then ,when I arrived home from work one day, she coolly announced that she was sorry, but it seemed she had retaken the lead. Not a competition? I even got a little trash-talking from her: “I just have more friends than you, buddy.”
- Recently Jon started a month-long daily blog on the signs of life. In the middle of the month he solicited photos from his readers and I quickly got to work. After 2 or 3 of my photos were used by Jon, I started announcing the score to Anna Marie, “3 for me!” She met this with the usual, “everything is not a competition!” However, my score keeping was soon justified by an unsolicited postscript in one of the entries in Jon’s blog. I quote: “(Thanks to the other Rob for the photo (Robb Lenardson has supplied several of my signs. Rob Hatch is trying to catch up.))” The bold and italics are mine, but if “trying to catch up” isn’t an indication of competition then, brothers and sisters, I don’t know what is!
Not everything has to be a competition, but it’s usually more fun that way. And just for the record, I’m up to 6 photos, hoping for 7. Nobody can catch me!
Just think how many fewer stories you’d have to tell if you didn’t view life through the lens of competition!
Hi–I’m back to test something here…thanks for letting me use this little bit of space.
[...] pictures from other people. Rob, Robb, Goldie and Becky came through with several each (not a competition, Robb), and today’s comes from [...]
Ahhh yes! The other Rob(b). Well, friend I must concede that I did not attain the “sign” post bar that you set. I’m betting (he-he) that our man Jon will start anew and invite us all to participate again in something just as fun.
With that, the gauntlet is hereby thrown.
Thanks for making me chuckle.
PS
I should note that my approach with Jon’s post was to throw him a bone or two, but also challenge him a bit, shake him up. i.e. One sign said “TOILETS ==>” and yet another was about the proper disposal of dog waste at the beach. Alas, he did not use them.
Jon showed me your pics and I thought they were great. I gave him one Amish-related slide that had a similar message: “Please clean up after your horses.” Jon gave me the impression that he was going to use the waste pictures you sent him. Maybe yours will be on the last post he does tonight!