Being right 1, Being wrong/Other r (current tally)

Today, Theresa said these words to me: “You’re right. I agree with you.” She seems to think she may have said these words to me before, but I’m fairly certain this was the first time. It’s not that I feel like I’m competing with her to see who’s right more often. Instead, I’m competing with myself. I’m not sure exactly how many times I’ve been something other than right.

Anyway, the context of her declaration was as follows: I was talking to her on the phone and looking at her website, which she just finished updating. Somehow, we started talking about her allergic reaction to anything that seems really cool, especially when that anything is also part of the art world. I said what I usually say when we have this conversation and, for some reason, it didn’t seem to bomb like it usually does.

Our relationship(s) to the cool (let’s call it) is one of our most common discursive (not mathematical) topoi. When we address this topic, Theresa inevitably mentions that, for the most part, I do not suffer this allergy because I have a disease that prevents it. I generally take this as a sort of veiled threat and respond with one or two defensive statements, which generally lead the conversation to an abrupt conclusion.

This time, however, she confronted her allergy in action and wondered aloud if she should just get over it and embrace the allergen. I told her, again, that the cool is part of the game and that, with this in mind, she–anyone, really–could embrace it without essentializing it. This is what I always say, more or less, but as every rhetorician and giddy schoolgirl knows: it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.

Since I strive to talk exclusively by quoting only extremely popular movies and tv shows, I usually convey the aforementioned message about the cool by saying, you’re putting the pussy on a pedestal, but this time I said it’s all in the game. Oddly enough, Theresa seemed to like the latter version even less than the former and insisted that I never use that phrase again. Nevertheless, she approved of “it’s part of the game” and told me that I was right and that she agreed with me.