I found something better

Maybe it was because I last night heard Aretha Franklin's signature hit "Respect" or maybe it was a scene I was recalling from the 1966 comedy film The Trouble with Angels, but something suggested I write this today.

 

First the scene from the movie.  An all girls school run by nuns is the scene and the Mother Superior is talking to one of the students about her own youth when she was a seamstress and had dreams of becoming a designer.  The student asks why she gave it up, and after a reflective pause, Reverend Mother says "I found something better."

 

Picture if you will, a high school boy asking a girl out on a date.  He asks just any girl because he wants to be sure of a yes answer, but all the while he is hoping for a yes from a more popular girl, whom he eventually asks.  Having gotten that yes from the girl he really wanted to go out with, he drops the first girl like a hot potato.  He found something (actually someone in this case) that he felt was better.

 

Now these are different situations to be sure, but the point I am trying to make is that we sometimes make changes for the better, but we don't always play fairly.  The girl in the second example certainly didn't get a good deal.  How about when you are choosing teams for basketball and the poor player always gets chosen last? 

 

Recently an organization sent out invitations to a number of people asking for someone to come and speak at an event.  They really didn't want just any of them though.  The first person who said yes was thanked and told when and where the event was and she was expecting to be the speaker - that's what they had told her.  A few days later the organization received a late response from one of the others that they had invited.  The late responder was a bigger name and so they dumped the first in favor of this new person.  Were they playing fair?

 

Think about these situations.  When, if at all, is a good time to go with something better?