Deflect v. Reflect

Saturday 12/23/23

None of the things in these pages that I state are happening are in my head--there's always visible evidence. As I say, you could screenshot it.

I took down that op-ed excerpt, because it's coming out in a pretty big place (and then I had to turn down another big place after, which would have been a good landing spot, but sometimes that's what occurs; something can end up getting posted on here because it didn't get moved, or it runs where it does; the quality of the work is always the same when it's my work; it's all other factors).

On my personal Facebook page--and also my Facebook author page, but more so my personal one to date--I'll post excerpts from my work. Sometimes it's just the work--that is, not a link to an entry in this journal containing an excerpt.

I did that with this op-ed, so it was hanging out there, unattributed. No association with a venue. No larger explanation for what it was. At the bottom of a story excerpt, it'll say the name of the story it's from, and, when relevant, what book that story will be in (For example: * From "The Keepers"/Become Your Own Superhero: Intrepid Exceptions to Modern Fiction.

Which unfortunately, people still can't understand, because most people can't understand anything.

This op-ed excerpt mentioned a family member. There were kindly words about them. (Then again: No one else would have thought these things--or made notice of what was deemed to be important--like I did. Or remembered.)

Someone will then (though even this is pretty rare, because, again, it's me) hit the like button for something like that, because they're doing it for someone who is not me.

They have an "out," if you will, so it's not actually say, "Wow, this was great, Colin. Well done by you."

I call it a matter of deflect v. reflect.

They'll deflect off my piece to show support or approval of someone or something else. So long as nothing favorable reflects back on me. Credit cannot be given to me.

I'll put it another way. If I posted the same exact words, and they were attributed--that is, the post said "here's a piece I wrote that ran in such and such a venue"--what would then happen--because that's an achievement of mine--is that same person who would have hit the like button before, won't now, because it overtly reflects on me--it doesn't deflect to someone or something else.

Get it?

That's always how it is. At best.

This is what I carry around. If it's not an actual curse, it's pretty much a curse all the same in all but name.

This is the hardest thing. It may well be the biggest part of the problem to solve. Thoreau got it: He said that people want an average person, a person who is like them, not a person of greatness, not even a person of absolute greatness. That's how he qualified it. That's who they make popular. What he would say now is that people will support--right down to something as lowly as hitting the like button--only someone they recognize as like them and on their level.

I'll share this tomorrow, and I know how that will go. I'll also share it via email with some people and places, including some I'm "in business with." But I know what's going on with them because of what I am, and what therefore isn't going on with anyone else with whom they have affiliation. And none of those people are doing anything remotely like this, which I'm doing all the time. And none of those people are creating anything like what I'm creating. Thousands of times over.

I know what everyone is doing and why. I know their motivation and how they think. I even have the evidence. I have notes, proof, receipts. I remember everything. That thing you don't remember saying or writing six years ago? I remember it verbatim. I have images to put side by side, which only inculpates. This is all real and show-able. Nothing is invented. Which is ironic, given that the rest of the time all I do is invent. But that's different.

What I don't have right now is a solution for me with this huge issue that is a massive part of the stone of a massive mountain. This could be the solution. What I'm doing now. It's what's serving as the plan: Create the best work ever every day, of an endless variety. Do this journal. Say the truth. Document all. Stay at it. Keep going. The change will come. When it does, it's change-the-world time, with everything ready to go. (And reap time.) And then something unlike anything that has ever happened, happens.

That's my plan, as such. That's all I got. Or that's what I got.