Bragging Rights

Actually, bragging wrongs.

It used to be - I mean way back in the middle of the last century - that we understood bragging was wrong.  I think as kids we corrected each other snidely if we did it.  Maybe kids still do, until they get on social networks and/or get smart phones.  I blame all that, the internet, camera phones, digital cameras, and of course, the general breakdown of civilization.

Used to be, if you had some triumph, you ran home and told your mother about it.  If she did something special, like grow an heirloom tomato, such as above - which I bought at the store - she might take it over to a neighbor to see, but not if that neighbor's tomatoes weren't bearing.  It might make her feel bad.  See what I mean?

Similarly, the incredible fellowship you won, your new fur coat, the gourmet meals you cook every day, which I admit are beautiful, your many vacations - Wun used to not brag about accomplishments and privileges to the whole wide world.  After all.  Some people you know can't travel because they're old or sick or have no money, or all of those.  Back when, you didn't ask people in those categories to come and watch your slides, or even look through a little album you might take to work, though I never knew anyone who did that, actually.  No. People used their discretion.  Perhaps Wun pinned a postcard of Paris inside her pod.  That's all.

Do I really have to go on with this, or do you want to go to your Facebook and see who's sending photos from Rome before they go on to Greece?  See pictures of a fabulous meal at a four-star restaurant you could never afford?  Okay, I'll concede this - it gives us all a chance to work on our natural envy.  As if we needed more such opportunities.

What is needed, probably, is that everyone go to that new Google attempt at a social network, which I understand allows you to separate your friends into various circles.  Put me in the one that says Can't Travel, Can't Afford Fine Restaurants.  Yes.  Put your mother and daughter in the other one that says Always Happy for my Good Fortune.  Maybe your sister too, maybe not.  I leave that to you.

Meanwhile, you can always "hide" an offender on Facebook, click on the x top right of one of their posts.  They won't even know it.  You can unhide them, too.  I managed to do that, though I couldn't tell you how.  And if one of those hidden world travelers asks if you saw his pictures of Italy, you can say wonderingly, "No - I don't always check my facebook like I should."  Which is probably true.