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The Company You Keep

Years ago, I had a friend,  Winston.   He was tall and strong, intelligent and clever.   I thought he was attractive.  One day, at a meeting of a group we belonged to, he introduced me to a woman.  She was not attractive.  She was overweight, very pale in complexion, and had no redeeming features.

She wasn’t nice, she wasn’t anything.  She was, at the kindest, plain.

My view of Winston plummeted.

I no longer thought he was attractive.   He was now, average.  And whatever positive attributes I had attributed to him, were cut in half.     It was like having stars to grade a restaurant, and giving it a 4 then seeing a cockroach and dropping it to 2.

We are judged by the company we keep.   If we are among those who are ‘all that’ then our rating rises.  If we are among those you scrap off a shoe, our rating falls.

What I found so startling, was that because he would associate, and later marry a woman as below average as this one, my entire image of him was altered.

In discussions with others I found the very same response; that men are judged by the woman they are with.

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What do you think?

Written by jaylar

2 Comments

  1. Sadly, we are very judgemental creatures. I remember a close friend with cancer. His treatment did not make his lose weight. It a matter of two months of treatment it put on 200 pounds. He wasn’t lazy, he didn’t over eat. He was simply trying to stay alive.

    Judgement of others based on appearance with is ignorant.

    (Guess I feel very strongly about this.)

    • I know what you mean. It is only honesty why I admit it, because it was so astounding for me to actually be aware of my change of opinion based on the woman he would marry. If this is the best he can do then he can’t do very well so it is my glasses that need changing.

      In reality, he married her for her money.