I’m sitting in the Subaru dealership in Monroeville, waiting for Ruby to get an inspection sticker, oil change, and usual annual checkup. The television in the waiting room is on HGTV (Home & Garden Television), no doubt selected as an innocuous channel. After all, everyone has a different idea of which genres are entertaining, financial information can be stressful, and forget about any of the news channels in this political climate. Food channels could trigger people on any number of diets. I suppose there’s the weather, that’s what I would have chosen.

But even shows about home redecoration can be triggering. Two strangers across the room remarked on how much they enjoy these programs, but how do these people have a spare two hundred thousand lying around to remodel?

As for me, I sometimes become annoyed by the privileged way the people on these shows speak. In particular, I’m triggered by the word “classy” — especially when the first vowel is pronounced in a long nasal whine. Look, I appreciate when something is well-designed and well-constructed, I have a sense of beauty and style, even if I don’t often reflect it myself. But this notion of “class” — I can’t deny it exists in their minds, but to live in a world where you continually compare and rank yourself against other people — I would find it tiresome.

The irony is how critically I myself judge those who utter words like “classy” or who otherwise behave as though they are above others. Do I not notice the log in my own eye?