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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN |
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ONLY A RED, NOT A BLUE
My six-year-old friend smiled from ear to ear. She had made some cupcakes to enter in the county fair, and was proud of her accomplishment. Her decorated cupcakes looked as happy as her smiling face. So when I got to the fair and saw the ribbon she had been awarded, I was thrilled. Later, I congratulated the budding baker whose sullen response was, "But it was only a red, and not a blue." Another friend, this one an adult, entered a photograph. Since it was the only photo in the given category, the photographer was expecting a ribbon. However the judge made no awards in that category. My surprised friend said, "I doubt that I'll ever enter anything in the fair again." Two other friends, both very gifted knitters, entered nothing in the fair this year. I asked the first woman why she had no entry, and she said, "Oh, I couldn't stand it if I entered something in the fair and didn't get a blue ribbon. It would be humiliating." When I asked the second woman the same question, she replied, "Everyone seems to get a blue ribbon. So why bother entering anything when the awards are meaningless?" As I was thinking about all these reactions to ribbons at the fair, I recalled yet another friend who won best of class for her brownies a few years ago. She was pleased to win the award, but her joy did not come from the ribbons and rosettes. For five years she had entered her brownies, yet the blue ribbon eluded her. She kept working on her recipe and her skills, and finally the effort paid off. Her victory after all those years was indeed sweet. County fair ribbons have little meaning on their own. It is our own humility, discipline, and growth that makes winning them pleasurable.
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
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