Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post

I don't have to decide if I think someone is bragging or working with a right heart. If you want to make that judgment call, then that is entirely up to you. Makes no nevermind to me.
Ahhhh, but it does. Or should.

Who we befriend, take into our homes and hearts, who we stand up for when they're not around, who we put our faith in, is determined by what type of person one is.

A braggart may just have a need for attention. It is also likely that there are other flaws, or what I would consider flaws, piggbacking on that bragging. That type of person is not the type of person I wish to surround myself with nor would I place any great trust in them.

Do you? Trust? Feel the same as you would someone of whom you suspected good doings but had not really ever heard them speak of such deeds themselves? It's not just modesty, it's something deeper, much deeper than that.

I think, just me, that there are times when story telling and singing of our good deeds is entirely appropriate. But not often and never just to brag, just to be seen in a better light or liked more.

There was a culture here, in what is now the USA, that had a pretty good handle on this. Some followed and tended to have greater respect of the people than others, who were more showy and needy, who while still well liked by many, never got the same degree of respect.

Celebrations of life or death, birthdays, days of gathering to commemorate a deed or person, these are good times for stories, for speaking of things done well.

But, in this culture I was speaking of, which was pretty much eradicated by our forefathers, there .....hmmmmm, it's difficult to write, even to say, but writing without facial expression and verbal nuances about something so delicate is a challenge I may well fail at, though I'll persevere for now.

Here's the way I got it. Those who care do things to help. Those who care do these things without any thought of personal reward later, even though they may well benefit as a side effect. There is no need to shroud oneself in secrecy though things done unseen are sometimes more easily accepted, more fully put into effect.

Now here's the tricky part. It's also ok for these things to be known and have OTHERS talk about them. Again, not all the time, not each and every time you have contact, but on occasions, it is not bad to sing the praises of someone provided you personally know them to be true.

People talk about other people all the time. But how many times have you heard someone say, "Hey, did you hear about Old Man Wilson? He's the one that (fill in blank) all these years. I had no idea. Pretty cool though."

Had Old Man Wilson spoken of it frequently, even once in a while, in a bragging manor, would you still feel the same?

We judge people by how they act. Some act, some are real, some don't know the difference. I suspect if you scratch the surface of our gilded guppy, you will release a foul stench. I think bragging as he does is a very good indicator of what type of person he is, in spite of the fact that he has now, now that he's been spanked so many times, started calling bg a 'character'.

He's a character all right, but not the way he's going to play it when it really comes home to him just how many find him rather pathetic.