Monday, January 17, 2011

Wannabees

Politicians and actors and musicians and amateurs can be so irritating.

And this is one reason why...

Ego...

The problem with ego is that it gets in the way of greatness. It is necessary to have a healthy one when you start on the road to accomplishment but then it can overwhelm and destroy if you're not careful.

Too many people begin on a journey to achieve something and then, when they have done some small thing that is passable, or even good, they tend to believe their own press.

And the worst part about it is that often, these people are wannabees. They have not yet done the thing they want to do, they have not yet arrived. But because they have actually accomplished some small part of the dream they mistake that for having arrived and they get lost it the applause and adoration.

To want to be something is not the same as being that thing.

I offer myself, here in this blog, as a terrific example. I want to be a writer. I, however, am not one...yet. I am honest about that. I entertain, I opine, I bloviate and I have a few readers who seem to enjoy what I have to say. I do it for fun.

That does not make me a writer. I have known great writers. Richard Seamon, Robert Penn Warren, Bill Arneth, David Brooks, Doug Logan.

I am not one of those people. I may have a facility with words, either spoken or written, and I may have a sense of humor but I am neither Mark Twain nor Dave Barry. After a lot of hard work and practice and schooling I might get close...I would be better than I am...but I am not a writer simply because I say so. I want it but that's not enough. I don't have the experience. I don't yet have the "cred."

And so it is with many people. They desperately want to be something and then maintain that they are that thing, justified, ultimately, only because they say so and have, maybe, done a little insignificant thing to be able to hang their hat on.

And they aren't just the politicians and actors and musicians that we read about and see on television.

They live among us and pretend to be something that they are not. If they would only be who they truly are...dreamers with talent at the beginning of a long journey. Just because they say it, or are lauded by others who don't know the difference, doesn't make it so.

I just wish our politicians and actors and musicians and amateurs would just tell the truth.

"I wish I were (fill in the blank). Someday I will be"

All of the self-congratulation is so boring.

Enough already....


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