Day 212
It is very true that the best people in the world at any discipline, skill, sport, instrument (etc). are never particularly well-rounded people. There should be, as my grandma mentioned over dinner last night, a competition for "well-roundedness" with international competitors. In order to win you'd have to be physically capable, perhaps musical and mathematical, moral and charitable, very learned, and so forth.
And that's the interesting thing, the jacks of all trades get absolutely no attention from the peanut gallery. But on the contrary, they typically have the healthiest and happiest and most fulfilling of lives. I can't tell you how many young pianists I've met, for whom piano was the sole self-measure of pride and value. And, like all people who have themselves judged for one thing, they are utterly miserable, feeling highs and lows that appear and fade as quickly as do the passing opinions of strangers.
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On a tangent: some of the most miserable girls and grown women I've met are the ones who have sought validation and guidance from their boyfriends. I'm convinced that this usually (almost always) stems from having a disinterested, absent, or otherwise morally useless father during childhood and adolescence. I've learned a great deal about what makes good and bad fathers from, believe it or not, dating more girls than I care to recall who had sub-par dads to speak bitterly of.
And on the flipside of this: find a girl with a rock solid dad, and it is nearly a sure thing that she'll hold you to a high standard as her lover, and generally keep you in line. She'll also expect the same from you. Interesting stuff.
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Anyway! No matter what you do, some people will not like you. They just won't.
But that's ok. I am deeply mistrustful and suspicious of anybody who is universally (or nearly universally) well-liked. They're clearly lying about many things. People who have colourful pasts, enthusiastic enemies, and dear friends, those are the people I trust and enjoy the company of. You can't have lived - I mean really lived - if you don't have at least a few burned bridges, jilted ex lovers, and visible scars to show for it alongside the family and friendships and ideas you've forged.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the fact that I'll be near death someday, and surely when that day does come I'll look back on how terribly short life was. (Of course, if at that point I think life has been very long, I've clearly made some bad decisions along the way).
Hopefully (and most likely) I'll be an old man then it comes, but these things are never certain. So, for the record I'd like to say without equivocation that I am a happy person through and through, with the simplest of pleasures and the highest of gratitudes to all family and friends who've made circumstances as wonderful as they are.
Anyway. This is a good summer.
And that's the interesting thing, the jacks of all trades get absolutely no attention from the peanut gallery. But on the contrary, they typically have the healthiest and happiest and most fulfilling of lives. I can't tell you how many young pianists I've met, for whom piano was the sole self-measure of pride and value. And, like all people who have themselves judged for one thing, they are utterly miserable, feeling highs and lows that appear and fade as quickly as do the passing opinions of strangers.
---
On a tangent: some of the most miserable girls and grown women I've met are the ones who have sought validation and guidance from their boyfriends. I'm convinced that this usually (almost always) stems from having a disinterested, absent, or otherwise morally useless father during childhood and adolescence. I've learned a great deal about what makes good and bad fathers from, believe it or not, dating more girls than I care to recall who had sub-par dads to speak bitterly of.
And on the flipside of this: find a girl with a rock solid dad, and it is nearly a sure thing that she'll hold you to a high standard as her lover, and generally keep you in line. She'll also expect the same from you. Interesting stuff.
---
Anyway! No matter what you do, some people will not like you. They just won't.
But that's ok. I am deeply mistrustful and suspicious of anybody who is universally (or nearly universally) well-liked. They're clearly lying about many things. People who have colourful pasts, enthusiastic enemies, and dear friends, those are the people I trust and enjoy the company of. You can't have lived - I mean really lived - if you don't have at least a few burned bridges, jilted ex lovers, and visible scars to show for it alongside the family and friendships and ideas you've forged.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the fact that I'll be near death someday, and surely when that day does come I'll look back on how terribly short life was. (Of course, if at that point I think life has been very long, I've clearly made some bad decisions along the way).
Hopefully (and most likely) I'll be an old man then it comes, but these things are never certain. So, for the record I'd like to say without equivocation that I am a happy person through and through, with the simplest of pleasures and the highest of gratitudes to all family and friends who've made circumstances as wonderful as they are.
Anyway. This is a good summer.
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