Good by Association
A man is publicly condemned by his peers for his self-centeredness.
A man is publicly condemned by his peers for his laziness.
A man is publicly condemned by his peers for his foolishness.
A man is publicly condemned by his peers for his obnoxious and overbearing nature.
A man is publicly condemned by his peers for his outrageous hypocrisy.
The particulars in most of these condemnations are true, though, as with any man, there are good aspects to his nature, too.
Still, and understandably, the man doesn’t like what he’s been accused of.
To escape, he retreats to the gambling hall with his wife.
The drink and prospect of winning big relieves him, temporarily, of the sting of the public accusations against him. The lights and noise and booze provide enough clatter to allow his soul to rest, for a while. For a spell, they are enough to disconnect the tension between his conscience and what he knows to be true.
His wife deposits twenty dollars in a gambling machine.
She hits it big.
The machine returns 10 thousand on her 20 dollars.
He quickly and excitedly messages a friend, whose relationship has recently been strained.
“My wife just won 10 thousand at the gambling house.”
“That’s fantastic,” his friend replies.
“Just goes to show, all those bad things people are saying about me, they’re not true. I guess we are good people because good things happen to good people.”
His friend paused before replying, realizing the good fortune had happened for his wife, not the accused man.
“I’m glad she won,” he finally replied, hoping for nothing else in return. Hoping the elation from his wife’s winning would be enough of a distraction to halt the discourse.
The friend waited, understanding, yet rejecting, his role in affirming such flawed reasoning. He’d been there before. Over time, he’d begun to fear that, in placating to such stupidity, too much of its stench may some day rub off on him.
He was relieved when the minutes passed with no reply.
In that time, he thought about guilt by association. He tried to wrap his head around the notion of good by association, as well.
He tried, for a moment, to understand the flawed reasoning.
Then he realized there’s no point trying to reason with a man so eager to accept such flawed reasoning. He understood, through experience, the fruitlessness in trying to reason with a man needing to be that stupid.
Later, this friend found himself reflecting on the notion of “good things happen to good people.”
He weighed that idea against another.
“Even the sun shines on a dog’s ass some days.”
He realized that for every head, there is a tail. For ever club and spade, there is a diamond and heart.
And he was no longer willing to be budge from that understanding, even for the sake of friendship.
Days later, the friend received another message.
“You should have come when we invited you. You might have shared in our good luck.”
The friend replied, “Thanks, but you were probably better off without me. I never win. My bad luck might have rubbed off on you.”
mrobins71 