Shallow Hal

Remember that movie where a dude falls in love with some chick whom he sees as incredibly hot but everyone else sees her as, shall we say, not so hot? Shallow Hal?

I've think I'm living one of those, except I'm the one that doesn't see the "beauty" and the object person is not a chick. Wait! I don't like how this sounds. Allow me to explain.

There's a guy in my golf league. He goes by two initials so for the purpose of this blog, I'll refer to him as J.P. So many guys think J.P. is just the greatest guy. But, frankly, I don't get it.

"Oh, man! J.P. can't make the Cape Cod tournament" I hear from my buddy Jim with the utmost sincere depression in his voice. The whole time I'm thinking, "And that changes what?"

"Hey, did you hear that J.P. made a birdie on three? Way to go J.P!" Twenty guys may have made birdie that day, but J.P.'s gets called out for public acclaim. Great for him, but why? I know truly likable or popular guys that everyone wants to hang out with or root for, but I don't see that in any respect in J.P. He's just, there (I made a weird face when I typed, then italicized the word "there" but I don't think I can translate it to text).

Don't get me wrong, J.P. is a nice enough guy. He's harmless and he's never done anything to me or that I've seen for me to dislike him in any regard. Hence, I don't dislike him at all. I have not reason to. However, he doesn't bring a whole lot to the table. He's not especially funny or witty or the life of the party or anything those lines. He's a horrible golfer who dresses slovenly, has a beer belly, is short and bespeckled. All of which is fine, of course, but I don't see the man-crush others have.

Simply put, I don't get it. There's guys in that league that I really like for various reasons: their golf talent, business success, sense of humor or they're interesting or fun, or whatever. Then, I hear so much J.P. this and J.P. that and I think to myself, "What the hell am I missing about this guy?" He's an ordinary guy who, to me at least, is quite a bit less than ordinary in every way I know how to measure him.

Shit! Do I sound jealous? Honest. I'm not.