I have a friend who got engaged over the weekend. When I saw her she was all kinds of excited. She was showing off her ring to another friend of ours when I approached. She held out her hand, smiled all pretty and waited for me to say something.
“Cool!”
She stopped for a second and looked at me, as though waiting for me to say something else. I offered “congratulations” and she fired back a somewhat annoyed “um, yeah, thank you.”
Riddle me this: why did she expect me to congratulate her? It’s not like she did anything. Had she just finished a marathon or completed a Rubik’s Cube I would have thought nothing of it, but let’s think about what I was supposed to congratulate her for doing:
Nothing, much like the woman in this picture:
She really played no part in it. She didn’t research the ring. She didn’t buy the ring. She didn’t plan the scenario in which she was proposed to. She didn’t agonize over the proposal itself. She didn’t keep the secret. She didn’t ask her parents for permission. She didn’t even have to drop to one knee. All she had to do was stand there. Well, congratulations for standing there! Hell, I know a lot of people I should be congratulating on a daily basis if that’s all it takes to get a pat on the back these days. All of that being said, why exactly am I congratulating her?
Thoughts, Sweater Wearers?
Note: I adore her and am VERY happy for her. I want to add that so she doesn’t burn my house down when she reads this.
