Too Much Awesome

"Frankly, I get a little bored -- and annoyed and suspicious -- when someone is sharing too much awesome."

-- Colleen Wainwright

We're all awesome! And we're all assholes. Awesome assholes is our natural state. Whether you belong to the other AA or not, you belong to this one just by virtue of your birth.

Like Colleen, I get really p.o.'ed, and highly skeptical, when someone over emphasizes the awesome end of the spectrum. Seems like a pathetic attempt to avoid their own assholishness, and obscure the yin/yang polarities of existence.

Hey, I really love to hear positive news, happy stories, and tales of success. It's just that not everything in life is great, awesome, or sweet.

I used to work with a guy named Ray. Ray had been to one too many power of positive thinking seminars. Every time I passed Ray in the hall and said "How's it going Ray?" he always answered with the same two words, "Never better!" That's what he'd been taught to say, that's what he wanted to believe, and even if coyotes just chewed off Ray's right foot, he was going to answer "Never better!"

The thing is, Ray was always walking in a somewhat contorted manner that, even though he wasn't disabled, seemed to connote some level of physical or psychological pain. When he said "Never better!" he said it through clenched teeth and with a jaw so tight you could use it as a vise. Either Ray was being honest, things were indeed "never better," i.e., they always sucked, or Ray was being inauthentic in a misguided attempt to be positive.

Better to be real than falsely positive. Things ain't always awesome. "Never better" is a lie.

Granted, when most people ask "How you doing?" they really don't want to know. But when you're telling the stories of your life, remember that every steak you've eaten was not "to die for," every sunset not "the most beautiful ever," and every third rate band "awesome."

Honesty and authenticity trump hype and spin, everyday.