On Popularity
03 October 2005 - 14:47 .
Popularity is really an odd thing. We spend our lives craving it, seeking it, and crying when we don't get it. Yet for a small number of us, it's almost something we shun.Case in point - the rowing club. I have (apparently) some nasty-ass reputation there. I'm seen as a loud, confrontational, brash boor, with womanizing tendancies and a penchant for being a shit-disturber (the shit-disturber part is true). I was recently referred to as a pompous ass by someone in authority at the club, based on a nickname I use at a blog I frequent (the person in authority didn't know the story behind the nickname). Someone else in the rowing world, also in a position of authority, said that I'm too blunt and forward.
Why is it then, that when people talk among themselves, they proselytize about a lack of mind-games and double-speak/ double-entendre? And when faced with that which they claim to crave, they shun it? The world claims to prefer plain speakers, yet will reject them when faced with that which they claim to seek. Huh? Did I miss something?
And if I'm such a pompous ass (note that I'm not denying it), why is it that I'm such a good rowing coach? And why is it that my teams will bend over backwards for me? If I'm such a dick, why do they buy me really expensive bottles of scotch, as a thank you gift?
Y'know what? I'll take the people who can *accept* me for who I am, faults and all. They faults are there, I know - the gods know I'm far from perfect. But it's people like my rowing classes (all of them) that can look past the pretension, and see the truth of what lies beneath... someone who cares about others, lives extremely passionately, and at the same time is confident enough to not care about winning some popularity contest.