Wednesday 14 July 2010

Drowning In Mediocrity

Has anyone ever wondered what happens to the average and the mediocre? Think about it: movies, songs, books, stories are told about those who are the incredible, the outstanding. The bards spin stories of heroes and seemingly average people who go above and beyond expectations, overcome all odds and achieve their goals. They even tell stories of those who are outstanding because they're so deviant - those who murder in seemingly inhumane ways, those who are cunning in their arts.


What about the average? Those people who may never be considered anything other than "well read". Those who, rather than being "detail-oriented" are "absent-minded" or "careless". Those who, while not lazy, aren't driven enough to be called "married to their job". What about those who live their lives in the middle class, who never date anyone extraordinary and end up marrying another average person, who pop out a couple of kids and live in an average sized family home in an average neighborhood driving average cars? What about those who only go on holidays in average places on average tour packages, those who dream of becoming a millionaire by age 30 but in reality never come close, those who never make it past middle management?

The average and the mediocre will never make headlines. They will never be exceptionally popular. They're never really good enough at anything to be called "great at xxx" and they'll never be too outside of the norm that people will say, "(s)he's so xxx".

When they die, their graves will be frequented every so often - probably once a year - by those who love them. But there will never be too many. Over the years, probably in less than ten, people will stop visiting and bit by bit nature will reclaim the grave, growing weeds in the place of artificially cut and placed flowers, leaving no trace of them but their names in high school yearbooks or in somewhat visited websites on the internet where their comments on articles blend in with hundreds of others.

Egad, it's no wonder so many people commit suicide.