Great Powers

"With great power comes great responsibilities..."

That's from the Spiderman movie, and I suddenly realised that it somewhat applies to me. So am I trying to say that I'm just like Spiderman? Do I look good in blue and red spandex?

Well, sort of...

You see, many years ago, I found out that if I smile a certain way and act all 'cute', I can pretty much get myself into or out of anything (usually it's trouble). And this only works with the fairer sex. Some people call it 'charm' and some call it 'being a weasel'... either way, I benefit from it most of the time.

The latest example happen about a week ago. I needed a letter from the bank. The actual procedure was to submit a form to a branch, and then wait 14 days for them to prepare the letter at their back office and send it back to the branch.

I have a problem with that. My schedule isn't exactly fixed. I may be in Penang or KL on any given day. So the letter might be heading to Penang when I'm on my way to KL. So what I did was I actually went to the back office. It's an actual processing office. They did not have a reception area... people there basically processed stuff for the branches. So I show up, talk to this nice lady, gave her a sad story about my schedule, flashed her a nice smile, acted cute and suddenly the letter was ready for me within 24 hours! That's a 1,400% improvement (I think... my math isn't as good as it used to be).

And it didn't stop there. I had to submit the letter with other stuff to a government agency. By the time I got there, they just closed the reception counter (ie. they didn't issue any new numbers). But me being me, I talked to the nice lady and asked her if she would just issue me a number. She did, of course. But then, I hadn't filled up the necessary forms. So by the time I got to the counter, they were already packing up to go home. It's a good thing there was a nice lady there... well, I think you can figure out what happened.

So now, I've got a question... is it wrong for me misuse my 'talents'? I get preferential treatment compared to other people just because I know how to 'act cute'... that doesn't seem to be fair.

Now how is this any different from attractive people getting their way more often than less attractive people... you use what God gave you.

Of course, there's a limit to everything... it's one thing to get people to keep the counter open for an extra 10 mins... it's another to convince somebody to hand over their entire life savings.

Everybody has their strong points. It's how you use them that defines you as a person... either you're Spiderman, or the Green Goblin...