By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece. - GK Chesterton
i've been working alot lately...not that it's a bad thing, it's just allowed me less time for some other past times that i really enjoy, like sleeping, or eating. you know, fun stuff. this type of lifestyle has caused people to accuse me of being a work-a-holic, while nothing could be farther from the truth...i can quit anytime, i just wouldn't be able to pay my rent (sleep) or buy food (eat), thereby creating a similar problem, or a trade off. such trade offs are commonplace in the "gregshere," or what you mortals call "earth." but i digress.
all my life i've, likewise, been accused with being an under-achiever. a title that i find difficult to reconcile with the aformentioned accusation. in school it was always "God gave you a good brain, why don't you use it." this is true and i'm thankful for what i've been given, but note: they didn't say great brain, so i took this to heart, and gave what i could.
my problem is not that i push myself too hard, or that i don't push myself hard enough, but that through some strange aligning of the proverbial planets i am occasionally capable of unwittingly producing something great. like an idiot savant unconciously counting toothpicks in a jar or a catatonic living in a profilactic state with jack nicholson creating a beautiful painting. yet all this sporatic, inexplicable brilliance accomplishes is that people begin to expect it.
creating a dilema: do i become the beatles and create dozens of songs a quarter to meet my quota, revealing for my labor only a relatively few pearls to be cherished by the swine which demanded them? or do i become johnny depp and stingely withhold myself until when i finally do committ to a project everyone must assume it'll be gold anyway; and then accuse the people who say i'm great of believing it only because i'm me? do i become leonardo de vinci and spread my self so thin over so many field that i never reach my full potential in any of them and become ineffective in comparison to my potential? or do i, like the supernova, reveal myself in a blinding flash of brilliance to all of creation, giving myself wholly to my work in a selfless act of proffesional martyrdom that won't be seen and appreciated for another thousand years? or do i write long sentanced, mildly amusing blogs for the handfull of friends who read them?
the heart of the matter is...it doesn't matter. brilliance is brilliance no matter how mediocre. no one could count like rainman, no one could whine like cobain, no one could sing like erin wilson, and no one can tell me what and what isn't sub-par. take that to heart, and be brilliant today.
have a nice day.
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