Mediocrity

Oh no! In today's newspaper (excuse me, today's FB pronouncements...) I saw that Kroger has purchased Harris-Teeter. Kroger...the store I remember as that none-too-clean grocery store in Charlottesville that was my last choice for grocery-shopping. Kroger...known for maximum coupons and minimum quality.  And now, they will own Harris-Teeter, my favorite non-neighborhood shopping destination that does it all: good produce, good meat department, good selection, good house-brands, good prices--and samples! Don't forget the free samples! And above all, purveyors of Mary T's frozen tea biscuits that are good enough to pass for (and perhaps are better than) homemade. I am officially depressed. Particularly since a new Harris-Teeter is on the verge of opening a new store in Old Town this fall. I have been patiently waiting for the grand opening since the first shovelful of dirt was moved. And now...Kroger!!!

Perhaps you think I am making too much of this. Perhaps I am. But I am getting tired of mediocrity in my world. There seems to be a serious dearth of truly GOOD things, and an alarming increase in the mediocre and/or sub par. I find myself latching onto anything that exceeds the (low) bar of acceptability. Why else would I watch endless crime shows if not to avoid the tsunami of 'reality' shows on TV? Detective shows at least employ a modicum of thought and generate interest in the outcome of the story.

This morning's TV page in the Post touted an extreme makeover of a 300+ pound young woman, which entailed a trip to Chile to find her birth mother. What???!!!!???? And a show that falsely contains in its title the word 'entertainment' insists on regaling me with stories and interviews of people who are famous for being famous. My interest in Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, the left-behind family of Michael Jackson (who apparently are all engaged in self-promotion) and the many and varied antics of assorted B (C, D and below)-list celebrities (who could POSSIBLY call them 'personalities'?) fails to meet even my lowest measurable level of brain activity.

Were it just TV that exhibited such a fall from grace (remember The Twilight Zone, Playhouse 90, All in the Family, The Cosby Show...) we could manage. However, movies have adopted another path as well. Spectacle. Apparently, explosions are necessary. Perhaps there is an unemployment issue or an under-representation of special effects artists in Hollywood, and each movie is forced to include at least five technically-demanding explosions in order to provide equal opportunity employment. Or maybe the viewing public is perceived as having the attention span of a gnat, and explosive effects are needed to keep them awake and aware of the screen in front of them.

Restaurants also are getting wilder and wilder, if not necessarily better. For myself, I'd prefer my ice cream without herbs, my food cooked instead of raw, and maybe, less focus on creative mixtures and more on quality ingredients. I enjoy innovative cooking now and then, but I'd like to find something on a menu that is comfortingly familiar.

Stop for a moment and catalogue the mediocrities in your day: the misspelled words, the technological glitches, the potholes you bounce through, the bad service at the department store, the countless mini-annoyances and disappointments of going about your business. It could all be so much better if there were an effort to achieve excellence, rather than a satisfaction with providing the minimum. Where have we lost our aspirations? When did we come to the decision that things were 'good enough'? Why did we all stop trying?

Okay. I am admittedly being a curmudgeon, and am prone to exaggeration. The fact is that we are all party to this trend toward the lowest common denominator in society. We accept it as the norm and are not writing scathing letters to the networks and movie studios and are not raking newspapers over the coals for their inattention to grammar and spelling, their bias, and their extensive coverage of violent events. We are not out campaigning for the few good and true politicians we believe in, nor are we supporting with our efforts the good works of organizations that are struggling mightily to keep their heads above water.  Some of us are--but nowhere near enough.

I suppose we are getting what we deserve. Mediocrity. In spades. Goodbye Harris-Teeter. Hello Kroger.