false humility

So, I'm ranting a bit today --

Know how I got here? Lots and lots of hard work. Know how I stay here? Lots and lots of hard work.

There is a faction of writers who find it necessary to lay disclaimers on their work, on their success or even on their fail. They'll never measure up to goobityhoobity over there ::pointing:: It makes me want to wear pointy shoes.

Humility isn't disclaiming ownership or deferring cause - it is the lack of FALSE pride. If you work your ass off and jump through hoops and you forge a meager success for yourself - it is perfectly okay to be truthful about it. Pride is one of those levers that some people use as a means of controlling the behaviors of others. Can you be proud of things you shouldn't - sure. You can be proud of your race when that was an accident of fate. You can be proud of your wealth when your parents or ancestors earned it and all you did was happen to be born to them - these are unearned tokens of merit or value that have nothing to do with YOU beyond complicating your understanding of self. The world is full of false tokens of personal success but when you get right down to it - what you do with your hands and your mind, that is earned. Received is received - earned is earned.

There is pleasure to be found in working hard - at watching what you do improve along a gradient easily comparable to your work. You can build something with your hands or with your mind, building your thinking, ideas, hopes. It is okay to experience this pleasure - you are human, you were made with the capacity to do this thing we call create. Hiding behind false words merely makes you a liar to yourself and that undercuts what you were trying to do with all of this anyway.