This is one of the most disheartening revelations that we can have,
that if we're not the best, then why bother? As
a result we have people giving up doing the things that give them pleasure
because they either feel inadequate, or because they have been told that
they are.
It is truly a sad day whenever someone puts away a musical instrument, a
baseball glove, a telescope, or paintbrush because they didn't feel good
enough. How sad would it be if we stopped kissing our loved one because
we weren't Valentino, or stopped writing letters because we weren't Anais
Nin. Please. If we lose interest, fine, but if it is because we feel below
some required standard, then that is a tragedy.
Standards are there to challenge us, if they should exist at all. There
are those who would say that standards serve to cut out the weak ones, that
the proof is in the pudding, that if we have it in us, we don't give up.
This is ridiculous, and worse, mean. In that kind of world all you get at
the top is good fighters. Surviving is a given, but let's face it, might
not only does not make right, it is not much of a life, or sensibility.
A better world encourages the choices of the individual, tolerates a diversity
of experience, does not push excellence for its own sake, but patiently
allows for different kinds of growth, different levels of experience, different
kinds of voices. Too many sensibilities have been crushed and lost, we must
know that?
