Pegasus The Struggle
Pegasus - The Struggle

I’ve learned along the way that people will believe what you tell them if you say what you’re saying with conviction and confidence. It doesn’t matter what you say. It matters how you say it.

That’s the only explanation I can come up with for what I hear a lot of people repeating about various events and personalities in our society right now. I’ll tell you what I mean.

My Beloved Curmudgeon and I went to a party a while back. It was at this swank house belonging to a che-che family whose home was more a showplace of their wealth and status than a place to live. Their status in the world is evidenced by the woman of the house’s need to periodically tell me that her family loved each other. ‘We are a real family,’ she would say earnestly. I would reply that of course they were. I’d say that anyone that knew them could tell that. I would say it with conviction and sincerity and she would smile, apparently believing me. Then we would move on to another subject until the next time she felt the need to convince me …. or convince herself …. that her’s was a real family that really loved each other. That’s the world she lives in. Its a world I’m only familiar with as an outsider who is periodically invited to look in from the periphery of their world. Thankfully.

At this one particular party, the woman of the house had opened up her home for her guests to walk through and view. This was a big deal. I had been to her home many times before, but I had never been invited to tour it. This home had been featured in a number of fashionable magazines. Its literally a showplace. So for commoners like ourselves to be invited to tour through the home was definitely a big deal. My husband and I, along with a hundred or so other common people, chatted and snacked and tried to inconspicuously soak in every detail of the exquisitely appointed domicile.

We were walking through a bedroom when we joined a crowd who were looking at and discussing a bronze sculpture. The sculpture was very large. It was a complicated piece with intricate, detailed carvings. There were two distinct sides that appeared to be fighting over or struggling with an angelic figure in the center. The sides were a mixture of demonic and angelic looking figures. The group was discussing what this museum piece was ’saying’.

As we joined the group, I heard someone say, ‘What’s it called?’

My Beloved Curmudgeon replied, ‘Its the Struggle Between Good and Evil’.

There was a collective, knowing, ‘Ahhh’ from this sophisticated group. You see, my husband had told them the name of the sculpture with confidence and conviction. They proceeded to discuss the meaning of the sculpture. What parts of it represented ‘good’ and what parts represented ‘evil’. They dissected it quite well, actually.

We listened for a minute and then walked on to the next exhibit in the home. I know my Beloved Curmudgeon so when we were out of ear shot I asked him if that really was the name of that sculpture. I asked him, but I already knew the answer. He laughed and said he had no idea what it was called and that they’d probably had it specially made or at least it was a unique piece. It wouldn’t be like them to have something in their home that other people might have.

Later in the evening we happened to pass through that bedroom again. This time a completely different group of people were gathered around that statue discussing it. I heard one man tell the group that it was called, ‘The Struggle Between Good and Evil’. The sophisticated crowd collectively responded with a knowing, ‘Ahhh’.