Revelation of Self Righteousness

At the supper table this evening I referred to the man at the helm of the recent Koran-burning threat as an “idiot.” (I’d contemplated the more-accurate “fool,” or the watered-down “man of foolish action,” but chose to wax eloquent in the common instead.)

“Hey, I don’t like it when you say that about people,” M said.

“Well, then,” I said, “I’ll just say he has a I.D.10-T problem.”

M frowned.

“How would you describe him, then?” I asked.

She could do nothing but chuckle.

Not unrelated was the wisdom I gained today from a colleague of mine who can’t keep himself from sharing it with me whenever he gets a chance:

“I used to get mad at people who did bad stuff,” he said. “I don’t anymore, though. It’s just interesting. And besides, if we hate all the bad people, soon we’ll be hating ourselves, too.”

By the way, remember my librarian who forwarded that email about wearing blue on Fridays in honor of Jesus and the GI’s? I kept my eyes open today, from above my green shirt, and noticed that she was in white.