FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

 

I knew I was at the right house last evening simply by the sheer amount of Mormon Mom-mobiles double and triple parked.

Baby showers are almost a guarantee for first-time moms, but since we as Latter-Day Saints tend statistically to have more than the average 2.4 children, it often ends up being the only one shower.

From then on, the rest of the kids grow up with recycle, reuse, and pick up at thrift stores for their outfits and toys.

However, this lovely woman was having her first boy, which made a wonderful excuse for a party.

The kitchen was overflowing with refreshments, people and gifts, as well as a decibel level right around 80 (90 is considered dangerous). So I took my lemon-water, walked right past the table of frosted, dipped and over-all incredibly caloric-ridden hors d' oeuvres (and did you know that the term hors d' oeuvres originally was an architectural term? See what you find out on the Internet when you have no idea how to spell a word?), and went out into the main room.

I was sitting quietly on a couch, just listening to all the babble around me (not that it was meaningless chatter - I'm partially deaf, so almost everything around me is reduced to sheer nonsense if I am not lip-reading and can connect your words with what I am hearing), when I noticed a very nice young mother, sitting all by herself.

It's almost an odd form of the herd instinct - people in the same social, economic and physical attractiveness level seem to group together no matter where you are.

And the less wealthy, less elite, and yes, less pretty, are sometimes left by themselves in the corner.

I am oh-so-familiar with that sense of not-quite-belonging, so of course I immediately went over, started chatting (it has been said that I can begin a conversation with anyone at anytime - and yes, it is entirely true).

So we had a very nice visit, learned some things about each other that we didn't know, and didn't feel quite so disregarded.

And I am fully aware that every single one of those well-to-do, beautiful people have experienced that same feeling of isolation in different settings, with those wealthier and even prettier than themselves.

But how quickly we all forget.