May 1st, 2019
I saw an interview with J.Lo in which she said that men are “useless” until they turn 33.
I can’t even argue with that.
I’m a clandestine member of a team that is part Fight Club, part church, and I got fired up today. We were talking about perfection and the sin of pride and it got me spilling about some things that had been swimming in my head.
See, unadulturated, all-consuming pride is bad. It is terrible for you and the folks around you. But being proud of something, if we’re to progress as people, is essential.
I feel like when you try to better yourself in any way, it can inspire some people, but it absolutely turns off others. It convinces them that you think you’re better than them.
And I’m here to say: that’s okay.
I am not a better human than any other human, and in a lot of ways I’m worse than many. But even so: there are certain things, because I work hard for them, that I am better at than you and that is a fact. And you do things that are so much better than I can.
There are some amazing baseball players out there. Some of them make millions of dollars and build their lives based on their skills. Conversely, I am a shitty baseball player. I am the worst. And I am okay with that, and I am okay with people being better than me at things.
The fact that I don’t drink alcohol makes me better than nobody. Except that’s not true. It at least makes me better than I used to be. It makes me better than me. And the fact that I make generally better decisions and don’t consume something that was consuming me makes me better at those things than other people who have similar goals but are not reaching them, for whatever reasons they have.
We have to be allowed to celebrate not only our differences, but our accomplishments. Because if we feel like everything we do is even, we’ll never strive for more. Perfection is impossible, but it is a perfect goal.
So I hope you feel like you’re better. Because I think you are. I think every day you get to be a slightly better you and I think that makes every day magical.
I get to be 34 today. Which means I won’t ever die at the age of 33, the year I started to become useful.
And that is the best.
The Den 