Out of the Newsroom

So I write this little blog thing…well…for me, actually. I don’t really write this to become one of those influential voices on the internet that is read each day by millions. Don’t get me wrong, if I am completely honest, I’d love to be Scoble, Jarvis, LaPorte, or even Huffington. One of those influential enough to maybe even make a living from my musings.

But that isn’t what got me to do this, and I don’t think it is what keeps me coming back to the keyboard.

This I say because I was caught a bit off guard by the half-dozen or so people who have mentioned to me in the past few days that they read–and liked my Father’s Day post here. Note that key phrase there–they liked it.

Remember that television commercial for Life Cereal that ended with the kid exclaiming “He likes it, Mikey likes it!” It’s kind of that feeling.

Maybe it’s time to admit it. I am a sucker for praise. I am a whore for a compliment. I try to act like it doesn’t mean all that much, because as a son of the south, I was always taught to be modest, perhaps to a fault. You don’t ever act like you want to be told that you are good. Not in public, at least. It isn’t false modesty–it is just not what we believe that civilized people do.

But anyone who attempts that elusive goal of “being creative” knows deep down inside that one of the reasons you are compelled to create, is the remotest of possibilities where someone else is telling you that what you have created doesn’t completely suck. That perhaps what you have done is–heaven forbid–actually good.

Even with the typical disclaimer of “It’s just my opinion”, it is still what we crave. I mean sure, it would be great to say, win an NBA title and be able to hold the championship trophy over your head (Way to go, Celtics!) But I dare say that hearing from someone whose opinion you respect–or even from someone you don’t–is still a genuinely awesome thrill all its own. (Because if they like your stuff, they can’t be that stupid, can they?)

Somehow just saying “thank you” doesn’t seem like the correct response as I see it. In that it doesn’t express the real emotion you have hidden inside, which is more like what my little dog does when he thinks he might get some popcorn I am eating: “Uh, Hello….right here….yep, I’d like more of that! Perhaps you could accidentally spill that bowl on the ground! Yes, more…more…more please! I don’t know who the hell the Andrea True Connection was, but that is what I want—more…more…more! Look, I am turning around rapidly in a cute fashion. Being very cute here…HEL-LO!”

Sooooooooo, yeah. That would be a thank you that I am trying to say here.