Spy vs. Spy

For those of us that are of an older age, or “vintage” as one of my friends likes to say, you may remember an old comic strip, Spy vs. Spy. The strip debuted in MAD Magazine in 1961 and has run on that platform with only one interruption ever since.

The premise of the two spies, one cloaked in white and the other in black, was that they were always trying to get over on each other. Where most storylines have a good versus evil angle, these two were both evildoers trying to sabotage the other. There were usually booby traps and backhanded hijinks in the story each month, leading to one spy winning and one losing a particular encounter (sometimes they BOTH lost, but I digress). The series must have been important, it has its own Wikipedia page.

My older brother was an avid reader of MAD back in the 70s so by default, I was drawn into the Spy series. I always rooted for the White Spy thinking he represented the good guys, like Captain Krik and the Enterprise versus the Klingons, or Luke versus Vader, both in that same decade. It wasn’t until years later that I realized both Spies were evil.

No idea why this old magazine cartoon popped up in my head this week. Since it did, I decided to think about the “versus” part of the equation. And not so much the bad vs. bad, however a pivot to the good against evil angle. So for today’s Monday Huddle Up, we offer you a list of the great things in life that we like, and the opposite side that isn’t so awesome.

Here is our good versus evil list. As you read these, you can replace “versus” with “over”…..

Humble versus arrogant.

Contributor versus taker.

Grace versus unkindness.

Team versus individual (aka playing for the name on the front of the jersey versus the name on the back).

Entrepreneurship versus “the way we have always done things.”

Mentorship versus passivity.

Sports versus PlayStation.

Experiences versus more “stuff.”

Long-game versus short-term wins.

Intentional focus versus trying to be everything for everybody.

Win-win versus win-lose.

Flexibility versus rigidity.

Surely there are dozens more that you can add to this list of 12. We would love to hear from you on that front.

For this week, pick one from the list that you like and try to exhibit that trait, while avoiding the other “spy.”