Once upon a time I sent out a questionnaire to everyone I knew and loved and whose addresses I knew and I asked them all about the idea of greatness - what did they think it was, how did they think a person became great, who is great and who cares, ultimately?
And then the other day I was going through my files, like actual paper files, and I found all those questionnaires, returned to me via post with answers about being "great" written in pencil and in pen. I opened those envelopes in a tiny 3rd floor apartment in San Francisco once upon a time. At a desk, then, overlooking a busy street below, people going to and fro, caring less about great, or maybe caring about it a lot. What did anyone have to say about being great? Those strangers and those people who I knew?
They answered a lot of varying answers - do what you love, greatness is overrated, what are you talking about just pay your bills, just be yourself - and so on. I haven't revisited that project since I was 20 years old. I should revisit it.
I saw this comic and remembered that project today -
- I'll take some life advice from Marie Curie (via XKCD) cuz that's pretty smart about this greatness thing / slash/ wanting to make a difference in something and somehow.
Hung up on great, then. It's a good adjective to aspire to.
If you see my reflection in a snow covered hill... well, the landslide will bring it down.
Hung up on great, then. It's a good adjective to aspire to.
If you see my reflection in a snow covered hill... well, the landslide will bring it down.
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