In times of deprecation I like to seek out my peers. Not in person of course, I wouldn’t dare do that; nothing is worse than real people. I just seek out the shadows they leave of themselves online. The ones better off than me serve as something to strive for; a goal of sorts. The ones suffering worse than me seem to cushion the blows I receive from my own suffering; knowing there’s someone below seems to foreshorten my mistakes and exaggerate the strides I’ve made in my own climb.
Anyways during a recent bout of deprecation I noticed a lot of my peers have taken to the written word, some even going as far as to call themselves writers. Some are new to the page, others have been wrestling with it for years, but all of them -barring a few aspirational examples- suffer from a level of inadequacy unacceptable for lives as rich as ours.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, they continue to churn out content -say what I may but the hustle cannot be ignored. The content however, always ends up as some swirling mess void of any direction or purpose; a literary fart, if you will.
Now that’s not to say any of the garbage I churn out is worth anything, but I can at least acknowledge my shortcomings. I’m no Hemmingway, sure, fine. But I try to speak the truth. The truth will always take a more attractive form than some production. This letter right here is at least infused with some semblance of humanity; I didn’t bleed on the page and for that I am ashamed but there is some part of me present; some piece recognizable.
It seems this style is not something my peers are interested in though, its not a pursuit we share. From what I have been able to gather, it’s the kind of carbon-copied, pseudo inspirational, “buzzfeed clone” vomit you can find on any millennial blog that is popular amongst my peers; the type of writing that can be found with every scroll of your timeline; the ubiquitous virtue signaling “kick me” signs that are enough to make me gag. What’s worse, is that this kind of pointless writing is the only thing that sells these days. So I guess I can’t blame my peers for any of this really, we just go where the money is.
So I see an opportunity in this.
Because the world loves change; we all love the next new thing. So if everyone is begging at the trough for garbage, I’ll win them over with some prime rib.