One of the worst decisions a man with many talents, many here meaning more than one, makes is to seek some kind of arbitrary classification for what he is to be, for what he is to call himself in order to pursue his many talents, many here meaning more than one, with internal consistency and external acceptance. He calls himself a writer if he likes to write. A poet if he likes to write poetry. A novelist if he likes to write novels. A dramatist if he likes to write plays. A screenwriter if he likes to write movie scripts. A copy writer if he likes to bastardize the English language. So on ad infinitum. More important than the talents or work produced from the talents is the classification of himself as a particular species of talent. A writer will often call himself just a writer when confronted with an athletic demand. An athlete will say he is no writer when asked to write his thoughts. A man who can both leap and scribble will call himself a Renaissance man for the audacity of doing things internally and externally. Whatever happens he must be called something. He must have a title, some way for the rest of us to define him, some way for him to define himself, some roadmap, the more conventional the better, for all of us to get along with the merry business of praising, criticizing and forgetting this individual of many, many here meaning more than one, talents.
Our age of ratcheted specialization exacerbates this tendency to treat the psychological stance as paramount within a man. What do you do for a living? I live should be the only answer accepted. But we say what we do as if that is what we are. Our friends try to find other things for us to do because they think they have an insight into how we really are. All of us spend our days grinding through or pursuing a specialization so that the title will legitimize our life.
The world does not like a pony with more than one trick. But men are not ponies. Men are men. Even as I sit here my mind and my heart are trudging through forests and mountains. I keep my interior alive. What is more I expand it. Expansion and refinement, these are the things I’m interested in. Call me what you will. I call myself my name and I take the long road to develop many talents and pursue many interests .
King Stimie
