I consider vanity a highly undesirable trait when others around me try to be vain. The keyword here is 'try'. As Master Yoda said, "Do or do not. There is no try." Trying to be something you are not is just plain sad. There is no better way to describe that. However, being a natural at something is only praiseworthy. And that includes vanity too. Mind you, only a select handful of those of us who walk on two legs and breathe oxygen are naturally vain, which is why I am so in awe of me. Damn, it is good to be me!

Modesty I don't care a darn about. If you don't beat your own drum, no one will beat it for you. Gaah! Doesn't it just take the biscuit? Even when I least intend to, I use innuendos. Put differently, if you do not blow your own trumpet, no one will blow it for you. Believe me, every married man knows that. He he he. Don't you just love me? All this double-talk just flows out of me of its own accord.

Anyway. My vanity stems from my being great (if not the best) at whatever I do. Like I said, a window is meant for modesty to jump out of. Basically that is why I do not usually make a sojourn on anyone else's blog (Aran is an exception but since she has not been posting these days, that does not really count). What's the point? It will tell me what I already know. I am good. Period.

Once in a while, though, I do make exceptions. Even the best among us is sometimes fallible. But that is not the point. The point is that when I do, apart from my belief in me getting re-inforced further, what mostly happens is that I leave a comment - truth in its most absolute form on the blog. In other words, the writer is told in no uncertain terms what I think about their (like I have always done, non-sexist language shall be used on my posts) writing. Truth, usually is a bitter pill to swallow. Some learn, and their writings start to reflect it. Others don't.

This one writer, however, did exactly against what blogs stand for - free speech. She (purely used to make the language non-sexist) deleted my comment. Not satisfied with that, she actually replied to that comment. So that blog has a reply to a comment that is not there! The reply was something to the effect that she was trying to get a message across and I could be her guest if I thought I could do better.

Apart from mutilating free speech, the one fundamental principle of blogging that the writer failed to understand was that blogging never really was or is about getting a message across for getting a message across is an exercise in futility. As Douglas Adams had said, "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

To round off, another Douglas Adams quote, "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." No reason to use it, except for effect.

Current Mood: Gloomy
Current Music: Eminem - Lose Yourself