I can't think of anything I do but what somebody I know does it better. Joe is more disciplined to exercise, Bob plays better golf, Hymman is more organized, Powell sings better, G.L. tells funnier stories, and everyone on our block keeps up his front yard better. And those are just the local comparisons.

Television puts excellence in every living room, so we see national or world best. Pity the local preacher whose flock stacks his sermons against the nation's finest communicators. Or the hometown soprano who feels she must compete with the extraordinarily gifted and trained television singers.

If excellence comes by comparison, by excelling among my peers, I quit. Ordinary is my ceiling.