It’s an interesting one (to me!). We met up with a dear friend the other evening who is great in so many ways; but she does talk about other people and how much wealth/big houses/successful businesses they have. She has tenuous connections to some of these people, eg one man is a multi-millionaire of a well-known shop chain who is a mate of her son in law. Similarly, my sister in law is always mentioning her friends’ credentials eg so-and-so has a Phd … so-and-so is a producer for the BBC …
Thinking about this further, I suggest most of us are in the grip of CAWS – being impressed by other people either because they are or they embody: Celebrities, Achievers, Wealthy or Status. But I do like to think, when I talk about other people, I zoom in on their great qualities that are nothing to do with CAWS - eg how kind/generous they are, how talented they are, how good they are with other people ...
I start to feel we’re quite dull in comparison (hey, my friend BaitandSwitch, she lives in a fantastic semi detached, got a marvellous 2:2 and has a wonderful middle ranking job …) but why do we do it?
I’m going to watch myself from now on, especially as my husband says I do it ‘a bit’. Does anyone else have CAWS tendencies?