What ever happend to being Humble?

On Humility

What ever happened to being humble?  Don’t people realize that you earn more respect when you are good at something and also humble about it?  I’m not talking about false humility.  “Oh, now, you’re just saying that.”  Is it better to be good at something, like a sport, and instead of dancing around after you score, you simply nod your head and jog back to your side of the field to start again?  Wouldn’t you rather see that?  In the olden days people were humble when they did something amazing.  Einstein didn’t go around saying, “In your face, Newtonian science!”  What happened to our world where that’s acceptable behavior?  Don’t you realize how foolish a cocky person looks when they fail?  It’s the basis for good physical comedy.  The high brow person who falls down is much funnier than the good hearted, humble guy falling down.  But why do people feel the need to celebrate and parade their accomplishments to everyone else?  It’s like we’re all clamoring for attention.  Much like writing a blog about yourself.  Yes.

I think part of it stems from the inability to see how we look from other people’s perspective.  It must be harder than I think, to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.  People say they do, but they usually don’t.  Really think through the scenario, and imagine you’re them.  How would you really feel about it?  Some people, it seems to me, live in the moment, on the edge of being offended, unable to take the split second required to imagine another more rational explanation for a comment or an action.

When I was starting out as a young writer, I had some extraordinary luck.  I mistook this luck for my own immense talent.  I was part of a group of comedians that put on a sketch comedy television show for the college station.  We had a blast doing it.  The director of the station submitted two of our sketches to a short film festival in Kansas City.  We won first and third place in the contest for sketches that turned out to be short films.  One of the judges was a Hollywood producer who we spoke to after the ceremony.  He really enjoyed our work.  I had written my first screenplay and he said he’d read it.  A few weeks later, I finished another screenplay. Around that time, I received a letter from the producer that turned out to be a very positive rejection, stating that he saw something special in me.  He said I had a unique voice and he’d love to read more of my work.  So I sent him the next screenplay.  He really liked it, but...  We worked on draft after draft of the screenplay until eventually he took it to Fox Search Light to see if they’d be interested in making the film.  I was twenty-one years old. It was my second attempt at writing a screenplay.  During this period, I was hanging out with my new artist friends and I had become quite full of myself and enamored with my abilities.  Fox Search Light rejected the screenplay, or I should say they “passed” on it.  But by that time I’d moved to Chicago and was wrapped up in the Second City world.  I was arrogant in those days and I fumbled several opportunities by my own hubris.  Over the next several years I was slowly but surely humbled.  Though, painful, it was the best thing for me as far as my personality goes. It’s important to mention that I say I was cocky, I don’t mean outwardly cocky.  Mine was a more internal arrogance that affected many bad decisions I made over the years.  Had I been more humble and willing to put in the extra work and diligence needed, who knows, my life could be very different than it is today.  But that’s not the point I’m trying to make.  It’s about humility. I think this happens to everyone in some capacity.  People who are good at things when they are too young and cocky to realize it often find painful humility in later life.  It’s those guys who weren’t arrogant to begin with are the ones that people are drawn to.  Those are the people, other people want to see succeed.    

So I look at Jimmy Fallon and think, what a good person he must be because he’s a humble guy.  He seems that way anyway.  People seem to generally like him.  I look at Leo Messi, the soccer star, arguably and potentially the greatest of all time, and add even more respect for him by the way he carries himself.  He doesn’t slide across the ground when he scores.  He’s low key.  He’s good and he knows it and doesn’t need to hype himself even more.  Being arrogant is a huge indicator of insecurity. 

My uncle Tom is a living legend in his corner of the state.   He was the football coach for a small town called Seneca.  His record for State Championships is staggering.  Year after year he took a new group of kids far into the state tournament.   He inspired kids to play at the top of their game and to reach inside themselves, to push themselves, to give their complete best.  The football stadium is named after him now.  But also what’s made him such a revered legend in the town is the way in which he carries himself.  He’s quiet.  He’s an extremely deep thinker.  That’s the first thing most people would say about him.  He listens and watches instead of idly making small talk.  And when he does speak there’s usually a kernel of wisdom in his words.  He has a unique way of speaking which my brother Josh can impersonate perfectly, but that only adds to his legend.  He’s funny and extremely dry as well.  You’d never hear him brag about any of his accomplishments, he usually down plays them.  But what makes him an even greater legend is how he and my aunt Merlene adopted three kids with high needs and rescued them from horrible situations.   They did it once their children were grown, when most people were settling down to start the next phase of their lives and retire.  They are selfless people and it amazes me.   Its people like this we should have our children immolate, not some arrogant, over paid professional athlete who dances around the end-zone. 

Children are growing up today to think its okay to be cocky and to celebrate themselves.  I fear it’s the wrong message.   But then again, life has a funny way of humbling us.  And maybe that’s the point of living.  Eventually someday, in some remote future, we’ll all be humbled.  Could it be said that in order for there to be harmony on earth, we’d all need to be humble? That’s going to take some time, though, I’d imagine.  But we have time according to the theory I keep alluding to.    Be patient with those who struggle with their egos, they’ve taken the wrong path and will need more time to find their way back to the right one.  But when they get there, it is believed it will be firmly taught and for them the humbling process will be a powerful one.

“Humble thy self in the sight of the Lord.”  Remember?

In order for complex systems to work, each part must be in harmony with the rest.  Could humanity eventually come together to form a truly complex system, in say a thousand years?  Most people would say no.  That’s ridiculous.  Maybe it is.  But you know me, I like to imagine.

What is a complex system?  Anything with smaller parts that come together to make something greater.  Atoms make cells which make up our entire bodies.  How is it that each atom knows it’s a part of the complex system and what its job in said system is?  That’s a good question, but they do at some level because without this knowledge we’d fall apart.  Imagination alert: Could each human be like an atom inside of a more complex system that has yet to come on-line at its fullest capacity?  What could we do once we came on-line?  We know that by a few people coming together working in harmony for the same end goal, forming a small version of a complex system, that we can go to the moon and fathom quantum mechanics.  In nature complex systems are every where.  What if that’s what we were meant to do?  Could the concept of a global consciousness be such a complex system?  If we got rid of all the things keeping us apart and at odds with each other, then what?  But that’ll never happen!  I know, but it’s okay to Imagine, Mr. John Lennon.  Imagine indeed.