QUARANTINE LIFE: MONDAY THOUGHTS

When you’ve been exposed to good, it’s hard to sing the praises of anything less than. 

Better isn’t always elusive. Best isn’t always exclusive. Sometimes it’s deliberately rejected in favor of average.

The excellent execution of a thing shouldn’t be a problem. It is, when it threatens to destroy a narrative, upset a plan, or burst a budget. 

Tastes vary. Sometimes, limited exposure to excellence and competence, is glaringly obvious. By examining what is celebrated and hailed as “the greatest”, you can see where ignorance, or a deficit of lived experiences exist. 

Ever see some of these “lists”? Who’s excluded tells you everything you need to know about the experiences (or agendas) of who compiled them.

No matter how a thing is dressed up and packaged, mediocrity is too loud and arrogant to hide. It can’t be padded. It sticks out like two sore thumbs. 

Like Barney Fife, in my favorite episode of “The Andy Griffith Show”, “Barney and The Choir”, he didn’t know what disharmony he was causing because no one was bold enough to tell him. He'd been enabled. He was the problem, but so was everyone who refused to tell him the truth. He was the problem, yet he enthusiastically volunteered, and believed himself qualified to root it out. He actually considered himself qualified to judge others whose skills exceeded his own. 

Nothing fights for a place in the spotlight like mediocrity. Nothing enshrines mediocrity like people who make excuses for, applaud, and accept it.

Saying that anything is good when it clearly isn’t, creates delusion, denial, entitlement, and a proliferation of things, and situations that are impossible to get rid of. Lack of foresight and care, puts people in places they shouldn’t be, threatens the cohesiveness and progress of a thing, denies opportunities to more deserving, qualified candidates or representatives, and robs people and entities of enriching, educational, and even life-changing experiences.

Mediocrity and the willing embrace and promotion of it, stunts growth, and invites ridicule.

Excellence shouldn’t be perceived as a threat or a problem, but to someone invested in the deception wrought by settling for mediocrity, excellence can’t be allowed. It would mean stepping up one’s game, embracing one’s true calling or strengths, or stepping aside altogether. Mediocrity, unfortunately, never volunteers to defer or step aside. To it, excellence is an enemy to be questioned, mistrusted, and eradicated.

When mediocrity is promoted and subsequently dominates, it teaches that excellence isn’t worth attaining nor obtaining. It puts excellence in a realm of the anomaly; the impossible; rendering it the exception—not the rule. 

Mediocrity should be shocking, but is too often met with politeness, and stunned silence. It makes you scratch your head and wonder:

“How?” 

“Who’s making decisions?” 

“Who did they ask?” 

“Who’s in charge?”

“Why is this even allowed?”

“Is this a joke?”

Many things are subjective. Some things are obvious. To those things, we either tactfully apply the truth, or in the spirit of protecting feelings, we say nothing at all. When we encourage and lie about the quality, competence, goodness, beauty, effectiveness, appropriateness of a thing, we are doing no one any favors. We merely invite more of the abysmal same.

A friend used to reference “polishing turds”. Just because a thing can be done, doesn’t mean you’re the one to do it. You can’t get mad, though when, people with functioning eyes and ears, and disposable income, don’t rush to support what simply isn’t good— no matter who produces it.

Unless there’s a payoff, no one is ever reluctant to acknowledge excellence. They may not have the resources to always consume it, but they’ll never deem it bad, average, or unworthy of their admiration or appreciation—not under oath, anyway. 

Iron sharpens iron. Mediocrity welcomes rust.

Excellence shines, regardless.