July 29th, 2004
I remember a time from when I was back in university sitting in the pub with a man and woman who were a) both Irish, b) both in their 40s, and c) in the same English course that I was. I was trying to explain to them why I "needed" to take one more physics course at the same time as finishing my degree in Arts. (The irony is that I finished my last semester taking a feminist criminology course that had absolutely nothing to do with my degree or my interests.) At first, these two people thought I should have dropped all courses of study and turned my Music and Music Composition classes into my major, but I was still stinging from being told by a music professor that I was "top of the B list, no better" and sort of abandoned that faculty.
<Memory>
ATTN: ALL FPA MUSIC TEACHERS
Staff have again been observed smoking marijuana and other controlled substances behind the Piano Rehearsal Portables. This behaviour must cease immediately, otherwise disciplinary action will have to be taken.
Signed,
The Dean of Fine and Performing Arts
</Memory>
Anyhow, I'll never forget what the man said to me (I remember it, of course, because it included a huge compliment from a man twice my age): "Brian, you already know how to distinguish the bullshit from the reality. Now you just need to learn how to use it to your advantage."
Well, what I have discovered in the 15 years since then is that it doesn't matter to anyone except me whether or not I can distinguish bullshit from reality. You see, if you try to point out the truth about people to someone who doesn't understand the truth about people (that is, if you aren't preaching to the choir), your words just sound like another opinion in a sea of opinions. And it further encourages them to present their own opinions, sometimes widely divergent, as though it were just as much a pearl of wisdom as your own.