Apples to Oranges

In the town I grew up in, there was a bar called The Sports Page ... I'm quite sure many of my Tennessee friends remember it. It was tucked back a bit off of Brainerd Road, and if I remember correctly, I think it was owned by the same fellow who owned The Playboy Club. Ahhh ... The Playboy Club ... I never went there, but everybody in town talked about The Playboy Club and the stuff that happened inside that building. But I digress ... back to The Sports Page bar. On the weekends, there would be tons of high school and college students cruising around the parking lot ... no, really ... we would drive around and around and around the parking lot until the wee hours of the morning. And all that cruising was for one simple reason ... flirting. Yep, The Sports Page parking lot was the place to go if you wanted to do some serious flirting ... and I do mean serious flirting.

I'm sure some people met their soul mates in that parking lot all those years ago and went on to get married, have a couple of kids and live happily ever after. But alas, as goes the story of my life, there was no soul mate to be found for me at the number one teen hookup spot in Chattanooga. The only connection I ever made in The Sports Page bar parking lot was with a car ... but oh what a car it was ... a red Ferrari just like the one Tom Selleck drove in the television show Magnum P.I. I ended up becoming good friends with the young man who drove the car, not like a dating friend, just a good friend. I'm pretty sure the most incredible night of my life up to that point was the night he let me drive his car ... that's right, I drove my friend's red Ferrari around The Sports Page bar parking lot, and I was cooler than cool as I did.

On my morning commute today, I saw something I've never seen before ... well, at least I've never seen what I saw this morning on an interstate anyway ... a jet black Lamborghini driven by a woman who looked an awful lot like Dolly Parton. In a split second, I heard myself saying out loud, "Gosh, I'd give anything to have a car like that ... I bet everyone would like me if I had a car like that." I've thought all day about my almost instantaneous leap from being more than content and happy with my cute silver Subaru (I actually really do love my Subie) to being consumed with envy and desire for the sleek black Lamborghini. I went way down that path way too quickly, and before I knew it, I was feeling pretty darned lousy about myself because I know I'll never own a Lamborghini or a big fancy house or be one of the rich, famous, beautiful people. And the thing is ... until I saw that gorgeous blonde driving that super hot car this morning, I didn't even want any of those things.

It's so easy to measure ourselves against other people ... and it's even easier to beat ourselves up after we do. The truth is there will always be someone smarter, prettier, richer ... there will always be someone. Comparing ourselves to one another is ... well ... it's just stupid. We need to learn to appreciate our differences and to understand our individual strengths and weaknesses. Comparing ourselves to each other is like comparing apples to oranges ... both are fruits, but two totally different fruits ... different flavors, different textures, different skins, different vitamins, but both beneficial in its own unique way. Wanting to have all the things an apple has when I'm an orange, or believing I'll never be as good or worthy as an orange when I'm an apple, is only going to make me one unhappy piece of fruit.

Apples to oranges? Maybe apples should just be happy being apples and oranges should be happy being oranges ... and maybe, just maybe, all us people should stop comparing people to people and just be happy being who we are.