Exquisiteness in the Quotidian

Today's title is a phrase I came up with just moments ago, as I described a homeowner's association meeting last night to my friend Barry, a fellow student of the greatest subject of all: human nature.

In college, Barry and I would spend hours analyzing and dissecting why people did what they did. One of our favorite subjects was Jeff G, now an estranged friend practicing Gastroenterology in Mt. Dora, Florida. Jeff had a unique take on humanity coupled with a schlemiel's luck with people that provided us with unending material.

Anyway --back to last night's meeting. Wifey and I are on our Homeowner's Executive Board --she's Crime Watch Chair, and I'm the Welcome Guy. My job is the best --I greet new neighbors with a bottle of wine and info about their new 'hood, and it lets me get a sense of whether we're having a new academic,say, move in, or Al Qada operative, or both.

The Board has two, um, older members. One is a delight: a realtor still active near 90, with a sharp mind and wit. She's widowed, with a bunch of kids who visit her, and who she visits. She routinely gets speeding tickets on the Florida Turnpike, and talks her way out of them with her sweet Texas charm and accent.

The other long time person is a dead ringer for the Gladys Kravitz character on "Bewitched." She seems to have something negative to say about EVERYONE. One of the Board suggested a fellow neighbor for an empty seat. "Oh no!,"Gladys said, "When they moved in, the mother let her daughter STEAL mangos from my lawn!"

Wifey counted 5 examples of negativity from Gladys. She's the embodiment of the great joke about the waiter in Hallandale serving a group of sour looking women: "Ladies --is ANYthing ok?"

I'm not immune from her scorn. She's been after me to have my gardener remove branches that "litter" the swale beyond my back yard stone wall. As much as I'm working on diminishing the passive aggressivity I inherited from my dear mother --I can guarantee that those branches will continue to litter the swale for as long as I live here.

So, as I commented to Barry --there is delight in the every day, if only one takes the attitude of an anthropologist instead of an annoyed participant.

Complain on, Gladys!