The part of the pompous ass was played by himself

Recently I sat across the table from an acquaintance during a luncheon.  I have known him for over 40 years, though I have seen him infrequently.  In his younger days, he was always overly convinced of his own importance to the world.   He proved again the statement I have made for several years:  “As we age we become caricatures of ourselves.”

For all of us near him, he went into detail about his many accomplishments, including his involvement with religion.  He was “the head of the whole southern part of the state informal bible study group”, among other things and had “been to a study breakfast already this morning!”

The irony of this was that as he was talking he gulped down two cocktails and said he would have more but they were “too weak” and he might as well drink water. I am sure those were not his first two.

I am not opposed to drinking and drink myself, but there was something terribly incongruent in his behavior.

Later, after leaving, I decided he was the perfect character for a stage play in which:   “The part of the pompous ass was played by himself.”

Circumstances have been changed somewhat from reality to protect me from retribution.
 

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