Dan informed me he was going to have leftover pizza for breakfast.

“Yay!” I said. “I can have pizza too and you won’t notice my garlic breath. We can be stinky together.”

Pungent foods repel my sweetheart’s kisses so I try to never indulge alone. Consequently, I’ve given up a few favorites, like Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits, which they could have named Garlic and Rosemary. (I wish I could remember those foods when we’re having a spat and I don’t feel like being close.)

Exuding hours-old garlic doesn’t stop just because we’ve both consumed it. My breath is bad but he is less sensitive to it, indeed, may not notice it at all.

I suppose this applies to other unpleasantries as well. If a person is drunk, for instance, among sober people, it’s rather more obvious than if he is in the company of those as inebriated as himself.

Considering something positive such as generosity or charitable acts, it is less noticed if a person is among those of like character. A charitable person would stand out among misers but blend in among his fellows of benevolence.

Human nature usually makes us want to blend in, be like others, and causes us to bow to what we call peer pressure. It’s why parents are so often concerned when they see their children keeping bad company. They would much rather see them being influenced for good: good attitude, character, work ethic, morals, or ambition.

I suppose it is why thinking minds such as Plato’s came up with the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.”

People who consume garlic are most comfortable around those who have also partaken.

Pity the postman or Dan’s AC clients or the grocery clerk!