- Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (accession number 1991.153)
I had a pretty good lesson in humility and pride . It was a moment of internal embarrassment and readjustment in my thinking.
It was one of those outdoor shopping centers with a Best Buy and an Office Depot spaced with several other stores in between. I was comparing prices on laptops and calculating insurance reimbursements in light of a recent burglary. It is the upside of getting ripped off.
But that is not the story.
I had taken note of the order of the stores from the parking lot and calculated that I could get a nice walk in just by moving between them and within them. I left Best Buys and began to walk toward Office Depot when a man crossed my path looking a bit dazed and confused and heading toward the Target Store.
When he was unable to open the door because he was attempting to enter through the exit, I mentally prepared to point at the entrance to help him out. I may or may not have actually pointed. I am a little fuzzy on this point because the real work was going on inside me. There was a flash of smugness and superiority.
"I can read signs."
That was short lived.
At the next shop, I entered through the correct door - without a hitch. How proud of myself, I was.
"I can read signs."
I looked around and, in a moment of bewilderment, observed racks of clothes.
"Why are they selling clothes at Office Depot?"
They were not. They were selling clothes at T.J. Maxx.
Tom Sims, the great sign reader-adherer, had entered the wrong store while basking in the glory of in his ability to use the right door.
"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." - I Corinthians 10:12
So, which was worse, the wrong store or the wrong door?
Somehow, as I chuckled inside at my own fallibility and silly pride, I knew I would have to confess this in my blog and hang it out like dirty laundry for all the world to see.
There was also some mention of a speck in your brother's eye and a plank in ones own as I recall.