This afternoon, the best I could manage was, “I guess I'll take a
(literal) walk and see if I end up in a different (metaphorical)
place.”
I ended up at The Ugly Mug, a coffeeshop I've visited on only one
other occasion, sipping a chai and flipping through the pages of the
identity issue of Orlo: Exploring Environmental Issues through the
Creative Arts.
I'd never seen or heard of this publication before. But it's been
around for at least ten years, and it's staffed by at least a dozen
people, and, like, it has art and essays and poems and advertisements
and everything in it. In other words, it is a project that's being taken at least semi-seriously by at least several
somebodies.
One of those somebodies framed his thoughts about the meaning of
identity thusly: You are as good as the best thing you ever wrote.
I'm pretty sure that's an exact quote.
I'm also pretty sure that the best thing I ever wrote – not that I
could tell you what that was, because I don't have a clue – wasn't
all that good.
Which means, I guess, that there's room for improvement.
Sorry to rain on your disparagement parade — but I remember MANY excellent things you've written.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide which is worse, feeling like you haven't written your best work yet, or feeling like you've written some moderately okay things that are probably the best you'll ever do. I think it's probably a good thing to have not yet written the best thing you'll ever write, because at least that means the best is still to come.
ReplyDeletep.s. I didn't win W@W either (frowny face).
p.p.s. We need to start cracking the whip for one another again. It's time to regroup and GET BUSY!!!! Gotta start working towards that "best" somewhere, right?
The person who said "you're as good as the best thing you ever wrote," is, to be polite about it, a genuine fool.
ReplyDelete