I’m sitting here watching So You Think You Can Dance? I try to watch the auditions on these talent reality shows and while I certainly know that some folk go on just for giggles, some seriously think they’ve got talent and are so very, very wrong. There’s a real wacko on right now who honestly believes he’s good, and admits his motto is "I’m the best." He’s very bad. He does, however, represent a whole misguided generation led to believe that everybody can do anything, and that there is no good or bad, no right or wrong. He’s being told by Nigel that he’ll never be a dancer and "Sex" disagrees, insisting he’s good and believes in himself. Nigel tells him that it is rude to think that he’s in the same class as some of the talent that’s there. Now Sex’s mom is telling Nigel that if you have a dream, you can do whatever you want. Nigel is trying to tell her that she’s doing her son a great disservice by allowing him to continue on this hopeless path.
This is something that comes up in writing quite often. Everybody’s a writer, everybody’s a poet. The out is that they can–if we forget the politically correct for a moment–be a good or a bad writer or poet, but mainly it’s a subjective call. And a lot of people would wince when even that’s said.
Why is it then that watching passionate, confident, dedicated men and women dance or sing, we can still tell just as well as the judges (them’s that know) who’s good and who’s just plain untalented, will not make it despite training and never will reach their dream?
With the dedicated mental and emotional input required of writers, wouldn’t it be a kindness to be honest and save them hours, years of trudging in the wrong direction?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology