Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Not Even A Whimper

A few weeks ago I posted this: “You put time and effort into something. You craft it with care. It doesn’t come out. What do you do?”

Today’s question is slightly different, to wit: “You put time and effort into something. It comes out, but no one notices or cares. What do you do?”

Back when I first started this blog, I didn’t know if anyone had seen it unless someone posted a comment or said something to me. Then I found out how to click on the metrics.

Ta daa!

Don’t worry. I don’t know who you are. I can, however, see what country you’re in, or I could if I looked. That novelty wore off fairly quickly, maybe because enough people talk to me about the posts to salve my hungry ego.

It’s still a valid question. Say you bust your ass – or no, you don’t even have to do that much. You just have to make a serious effort to do something well. Then you get zero feedback. That doesn’t invalidate your effort. You’re not stupid, you know it was good. But you feel like shit anyhow.

Heh. The funny thing is, this is both rhetorical and not rhetorical. It’s rhetorical in that I’ve had to answer it for myself any number of times. The answer is that I move on to the next thing and keep going.

It’s not rhetorical in that I just watched this happen to someone else and I’m furious about it.

Given how much fuss the Internet makes over trivialities, when I see something that genuinely merits attention and doesn’t get it, I grab my keyboard and make you watch me rail against the Injustice Of It All. I can take my own failure in stride, but when I see someone else do something glorious, something that should be triumphant, and instead of victory they don't even hear crickets because even the insect audience is nonexistent, then you have to read my bitchings.

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot: this is the way the project ends, not with a bang, not even with a whimper.

But do your cranky old Auntie a favor, will you? The next time someone you know does something well, please tell them so. You’ll make the world a nicer place.

2 comments:

jan said...

you did it well, sis, no question. but sometimes the fact that you can do something well is not enough reason to keep doing it. brava, well done. now, onward.

carole* said...

Thankee sis! But this time it wasn't me, I promise. ;)