More Klostermanic goodness from Chuck Klosterman's new book, "Eating the Dinosaur":
"Here's a question I like to ask people when I'm 5/8 drunk. Let's say you had the ability to make a very brief phone call into your own past. You are (somehow) given the opportunity to phone yourself as a teenager; in short, you will be able to communicate with the fifteen year old version of you. However, you will only get to talk to yourself for fifteen seconds. As such, there's no way you will be able to explain who you are, where or when you're calling from, or what any of this lunacy is supposed to signify. You will only be able to give the younger version of yourself a fleeting, abstract message of unclear origin.
What would you say to yourself during these fifteen seconds?"
Oh, so easy.
ReplyDeleteYou are smarter, stronger, and more capable than you realize. Everytime the voice in your head says you should avoid trying something because you might not be good at it, you might fail, or you might look silly, DON'T LISTEN. You have a moral obligation to achieve your highest potential. Take risks. Fail often. Have faith in yourself.
This is undoubtedly the same advice my 55-year-old self would give my current self; ditto my 75-year-old self to my 55-year-old-self.
I suspect the crippling self-esteem issue is a female one, but perhaps not.
Not an exclusively female one, no. I think it is more severe in females, and more widespread-females in 2009 are given all sorts of confusing, mixed messages by the media of all types, their families, their employers, and, once recieved and refracted, by themselves.
ReplyDeleteBut men suffer from that voice, too, and it is accentuated by an overwhelming burden to be masculine-betray no emotion, admit no weakness, speak of nothing emotional save your feelings about Andy Reid's playcalling.
Kiss him now... you'll never have the chance again.
ReplyDeleteAnanda girl, that was lovely and poignant.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I think you are right.
ReplyDelete