What’s so wrong with a little modesty here & there?

writers, ego and desperate ambition

In one sense, it doesn’t annoy me that we have so few original writers. It’s more like this: so many writers behave as though they are presenting something new or creative. But are they? Really?

And then there’s the difference between being a good writer and actually having truly creative things to say. Because one is quite different than the other.

Some people are so accomplished at the art of writing that people will read anything they have to say — just because they write so damn well. But to me, that’s kind of like being a very good looking actor who can’t really act all that well. But they look good. The thing is, you can look great in a baseball uniform, but if you can’t swing a bat and deliver, how much does it really count?

That’s why yesterday I threw my hands up in the air when I saw a newly appointed senior executive showing up on Medium detailing her current 43-or-something point task list, and telling us her father had always told her she was “good at telling other people what to do.” As though this matters. Seriously?

But look, it’s her life. I get that. And I’m not out to change it. But the thing is, when we start positioning ourselves as leaders, or as creative, energetic innovators, well, too often what comes out of that is self delusion and a false sense of what leadership really means. And then our acolytes start emulating these behaviors. And then the entire continuum of behavior becomes even further unmoored — thanks to our ‘leaders’, their ‘defining moments’, awesome revelations, synergistic insights, and, of course, their complicit followers.

I’d much rather read the anonymous, modest musings of a truly creative man or woman living somewhere on the rural back roads of the Internet, than to have to choke down the ego-fueled chirpiness of all these socially ambitious gurus.

This all reminds me of the way spirituality is often pursued. There has to be an angle. There has to be a path to making money. Books, tapes, CDs and seminars. It’s so stunningly bland and artificial that it’s a wonder it doesn’t collapse under its own black hole weight.

Similarly, the preponderance of today’s writing is typically either bland or it represents someone’s silent scream for attention, someone’s desperation for wealth and success.

What’s wrong with modesty? And with having the patience not to write or say anything, unless you really have something to say?

The Monastery of Nothingness

In the monastery, there is a vow of silence. It tends to be a reasonable guide for regular, everyday life:

THE MONASTIC VOWS OF SILENCE

• You do not need the permission of the abbot to take a vow of silence.
• You may take a vow of silence at anytime.
• Breaking the vow is strictly prohibited — unless you have something to say