Do you know what you’re saying, Miss Universe?

I peruse the headlines and read whatever catches my eye, and this one, though extremely shallow in nature, had 2 parts I thought were worth pointing out. The headline was “Miss Venezuela crowned Miss Universe; Miss USA trips–again.”

Apparently for the second year in a row, Miss USA has fallen flat on the ground during the evening gown section of the pageant. Honestly, this is something I would have liked to see. There’s a part of me that likes to see the vain humbled. I am not sure how good or evil that is because I know that it is God’s job to ultimately put people in their place for the lives they have lived. Even so, growing up I always got a smerk out of guys in gym class who would try to show off in a sport and would mess up. I wanted to tell them that it was ok to be talented and good, but that they’re attitude was working against others’ appreciation for their talent. I now realize that moments of vanity are driven by insecurity. If your hope is in yourself, you have to get to the top to justify your life and worth. In my opinion, that is a sad way to live.

Here’s point two from this rediculous article, and it’s about how we process our past experiences as preparing us for things we face in the present. Here’s the quote: “An elated Dayana Mendoza received the crown from her predecessor, Riyo Mori of Japan, and then prepared to meet a gaggle of reporters. Miss Venezuela, 22, was once kidnapped in her homeland and says the experience taught her to remain poised under pressure.” Comment if you disagree, but is being kidnapped in a country that has a history of brutal kidnapping and murders the type of thing you want to connect to the pressures of winning a pageant and telling reporters how great and thankful you are? We often project our experiences and trials forward and backward in hopes that they will be valuable, but this connection seems off. Maybe for Miss Universe, it sums up her rags to riches story of struggling to be queen of the universe, or maybe pageants are so brutal that being kidnapped really did prepare her. Regardless of what the answer is, it does make me realize that I need to be mindful of how I process and project my experiences to the things that I face. Things happen for a reason, and sometimes they just happen, as seen in the book of Job, and I need to remember that.