Shamefully narcissistic

Shameless self-promotion was my friends comment after reading some of my material. The response he got was that indeed my column is about my experiences of everyday events that perhaps others can relate to. He may have a valid point about being self centred, however this in no way camouflages the fact that his criticism quickly follows the path of self-appraisal during which he will inform me how well educated he is, how much more articulate…

How enlightened…. Knowledgeable he is. This he brings home by using ‘big’ words straight from the thesaurus that no other sane British person is currently using or has any comprehension of. Surely enough he will judge, criticise and ridicule anyone who appears to be making any grammar mistakes or errors of pronunciation which allegedly he has a right to do since he is ‘a cut above’ the rest with his intelligence and extensive knowledge which he no doubt gained as a result of many nights spent indoors as opposed to being out and about. Harsh? No way, it’s all true and living up in the sticks he must be missing my constant abuse and harassment. I am just being nice to him. In a friendly way of course. He would agree with my review of him. 

Several years ago I read a book by Ben Elton. Blind Faith. At the time when reading the book it seemed to me that it was filled with ludicrous depictions of the future that sounded unrealistic and unlikely to happen. The characters were cheesy and made no sense. They all used tacky slang words; made references to social activities in such lame and overtly pop culture way. People were naming their children silly names, everyone was famous, everyone was always online, everyone was free and liberated, and everyone was interesting and always had something to say. You certainly could not relate to any of them as they seemed to be out of this world and so cheesy that it made you cringe. I finished the book none the less, as every book opened must be finished as respect to the writer. It was some time after reading the book that I overheard a couple of ladies well into their 40s talking about their weekend. It’s not a hobby of mine to listen to people in public places but they were particularly loud. Something struck me as familiar about their cheesy exchange of the weekend’s activities. Then another time at a party, then at the gym, and then constantly at each walk of my life I started seeing the characters out of Ben Elton’s book materialising around me. Each day it spooked me more and more that the world around me was turning into the book and the characters that I found hard to relate to were my friends…my family…my colleagues…ME!!! 

All at the same time I welcome, embrace technology and advancement and am also spooked, creeped out by it. Observing the world around me I am sometimes deeply saddened and cheered in such a mix of emotions.

These days everyone is embracing their inner child and maintaining a younger frame of mind. So whilst we cling onto this eternal youth who will actually become old? Who will accept the aging process?

It seems that no one is willing to allow time take its toll or to sit in the sidelines. Everyone wants the limelight and eternal youth all at times.

For many years life coaches have been preaching about self worth and confidence. It now appears that their hard work has paid off and the trend to ‘love thy self’ has caught on. You can barely converse with anyone without them literally holding on till you take a breather to tell you about how unique they are and how interesting the lives they is. As someone who enjoys attention and wants to be the centre of attention frequently I find myself having to quieten down and listen to those whom I interact with in order to show interest and give them an opportunity to have their spotlight in the conversation. Being used to the role of the comedian and the entertainer at every gathering and party I find nowadays that people like me are more and more widespread. This is good news in terms of interesting social interactions but then at times it feels like when people listen they only do so to ensure that they have an audience to cheer and whoop when it’s their turn to ‘shine’. Most conversations are to showcase talents and interesting activities people part take in. Everyone is more social these days in order to accumulate a greater and larger audience. So Mr Elton can rest assured that he may have unleashed a prophecy upon us about the kind of people the inhabitants of the modern world would become. It may just be that being the genius that he is he was able observe ahead of us where popular culture was leading us and quickly put pen to paper before we all came to realisation. Whatever may be the case there is no denying the fact that we all seem wrapped up in ourselves and all strive to be the ultimate human!