aeilkema opened this issue on Jun 16, 2005 ยท 53 posts
XENOPHONZ posted Fri, 17 June 2005 at 11:48 AM
Anyone who plays piano well enough to give a recital has EARNED the right to sneer at me.
I suppose that this means that someone who has achieved greatness in some area of endeavor then has the "right" to sneer at all other comers.
Uh.....no.
Such an individual is known as a prima donna.
They might even be the best at what they do. But their attitude both poisons and corrupts their art.
Talent tempered with a little humility impresses people far more than raw talent with nothing else underneath.
A sneer carries its own reward. People that are rude to their "inferiors" often find themselves eventually coming to a gray (or to a black) place in life. When they are finally forced to realize that the term "vanity" derives from a Latin root meaning "emptiness".
The applause doesn't last forever. And 100 years later even the best of us are usually forgotten. History remembers a bare handful -- out of all of the incredibly talented people that have ever lived.
Best to live one's life tempered with a little knowledge. We are all mortal.