Not one dot

Tall-poppy syndrome afflicts all Australians. We know it, don't we? All Australians are humble regular joes, just as we know that all Americans are arrogant jerks. That's how we think - it's hard-wired into our being. The Australian society's greatest goal is social equality. If you don't know it, our politicians certainly do. Did you notice Gillard was out in the media this week claiming she's just a regular ole gal (or perhaps a 'bloody normal sheila')? Have you noticed how if an Australian male is travelling in a taxi by himself, he always sits in the front seat? I'm told this is peculiar to Aussies. It's because we're all mates, and a cab ride is just a mate giving another mate a lift (at $1.83/km). This way of thinking ensures we cut one another down if we think they're getting a big head, full of themselves, or start to think their poop smells better than most.

Now due to the dreaded syndrome, boasting is especially hard to do in this country. But we manage. Because, let's face it - the tall-poppy syndrome is merely pride in the name of equality. It's kind of reverse-pride, where rather than putting ourselves forward, we pull others back. But because of the syndrome, we need to invent clever ways to be boastful, without appearing to be.

I have no such pretense. I want to be boastful for just a minute. Please allow me to indulge my inner selfishness for a brief moment. Of course, in true Australian style I'll try and disguise it with a joke, but we all know what I'm doing.

My boast needs some background, but stick with me.

Let me tell you a bit about the Hebrew language. Hebrew is a semitic language. I couldn't be bothered googling the definition of semitic language, but I imagine it would be something like, 'It has squiggly letters like Arabic'. But more than that, in some forms, as well as being squiggly, it has dots. Lots of dots. Dots above the letters, dots below the letters, dots in letters. It's as if someone has printed it out on a faulty printer. Or perhaps as if hundreds of tiny bugs have died over the years and been squashed onto the parchment.

I tell you all this, because I've finally worked out what Jesus meant when he said this during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:18

Not a dot will pass from the law, until all is accomplished.

I finally get it. I understand what Jesus was saying.

I was one dot off getting 100% on my Hebrew exam.

One. Lousy. Dot.

This is what I wrote;

This is what I should have written;

One dot.