Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Humility, humanity, and the art of adulthood

"It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am." -- Muhammad Ali

I really hate making mistakes, and I recently made a bad one: In a book review, I relayed another author's quote about the work, but I mistakenly wrote that the person I was quoting had died last summer. My goof was the result of seeing an obituary in a too-quick Google check of the person's name. It didn't help that the still-alive author had the same name and birth year as the person who'd died, never mind the fact they both lived in the same city. Oy.

Mistakes will be made. They're never easy. I'm human, and I admit I goofed here.

Speaking of obituaries, John Perry Barlow died a few weeks ago and I enjoyed reading about his life. The one-time lyricist for the Grateful Dead was also the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Among the artifacts that circulated in remembrances of his life was a 25-point typewritten document titled "Principles of Adult Behavior."

A healthy ego is a good thing, especially leavened with a sense of humor. I can be full of myself at times, and also full of it, so it's a useful corrective to be proven wrong once in a while.

Here's Barlow's list ...


P.S. Thanks for reading. This is the first of what I hope will be weekly posts over the next few weeks in observance of #UULent 2018.

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