Am I Jealous or Are You Bragging?
This holiday season brings lots of Christmas cards, photos and family updates in our mailboxes. What I would like to zero in on in this little discussion; at least I hope it will be a discussion, with you providing some back and forth; are the family updates. There are times when I have read them and cannot help but think the writer is bragging. I am not sure if this is true in any or all of the cases that I have felt this or that this is something in me; a reaction to them as I compare myself, perhaps, and a feeling that I somehow fall short. So, how does one sort out such complexities? When is the author bragging? What are the clues? And when is the reader being oversensitive and, may I say, a tad jealous? How do you discern between the two? I put myself in a precarious situation with this blog post since at least one of my readers is one who has sent a Christmas letter updating us on the family (Note to that person: I don't think I ever thought of you as bragging in s...