Comparison. Deciding if we measure up based on our assessment of other people’s merit, and whether we think we are better or worse than them. It sounds silly when put that way and yet it’s a trap that most people have fallen into at one time or another. Many times we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

I can be happy and content with what I have, what I made, where I am one minute. Then moments later after viewing images on the internet of other people’s creations, locations, etc. I can suddenly feel deflated.

How wise Mark Twain was to boil this important truth down into one sentence. Nothing can rob us of our confidence like comparison. The reverse is just as unhealthy. If I feel good about myself because I have determined someone else to be inferior, well that’s just not right!

The photograph I chose for this week’s Phrase Art Phriday is one that I took in 2007. I was right in the middle of the antiques business at that time. I had a large collection of vintage hats, many with lush embellishments like velvet flowers, beading, feathers and fur. I enjoyed displaying them in my rented space and most of them sold fairly quickly. The two hats in the photo are quite plain compared to most of the ones I had. I loved the one on the right because of the blush color ~ a color that’s hard to find in just the right shade. It’s displayed on a bowling pin. A humble pedestal for a modest hat. It would surely get lost amongst a display of more elaborate hats. It wouldn’t “measure up.” But set apart on a tattered bowling pin with simple surroundings there is nothing out shadowing it. It is lovely just the way it is.