Pride

In all we do

Years ago I read a book about writing, written by one of the world’s most famous living authors. A man who’s name is common knowledge.

He writes genre fiction. Mainly novels, some short stories. And he is wildly successful at it with massive book sales, and seeing many of his books adapted into movies.

But, genre fiction is the kind of writing that the snobs of the world look down upon. The kind of writing that they would never call literature. And his particular chosen genre is one considered to be somehow ‘lesser’ than many others.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

He’s gotten rich and famous from his writing. But he hasn’t received the respect and acclaim that he should have received from the sorts of people who write for The New Yorker and hand out Nobel Prizes for Literature.

In fact, he writes in his book about writing, how before he became rich and famous people used to denigrate his work. That they would ask him why he didn’t write about important things. Why he wrote what they considered to be trash.

How sad is that?

I suppose that the first time one of his books hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List was a good bit of revenge on the haters. I suppose as well that going to the movies to see the latest blockbuster with his name on it was a good bit of revenge too. And I bet that first million dollars was extra sweet following all of the hate.

I bring this up for a couple of reasons.

I think that we must have a sense of pride in whatever it is that we choose to do, regardless of how anyone else might judge it.

That we should strive to be the very best we can be when pursuing our own unique interests, even if others believe or even tell us that those interests are somehow not worthy of our pursuit.

And I think that this is something that we as Masons can benefit from remembering.

Those around us might not understand Freemasonry. They might take a dim view of Freemasonry. Heck, they might even believe the cranks and nuts out there, and come to believe that we are somehow perpetuating evil through our work within Freemasonry.

We know differently, but those attitudes can be jarring when encountered, and certainly discouraging if encountered often enough.

Having pride in the work that we do as Freemasons, and doing that work to a high level of excellence is the perfect medicine to counter the haters and the naysayers around us.

I also bring it up because some of the men who read Emeth have been inspired to take up writing as well. And I’ve followed that as best I can. Some have done it only for a time, others have been publishing over the long term now.

And I think that is really great!

But hey, sometimes people might believe that what we focus on in our writing just isn’t worthy.

Take me for example.

I’m a political guy, from a political family, with a life filled with political friends. All of those people, no doubt, believe that I should be writing here about politics every week. That I’m wasting my time writing about Freemasonry instead.

I can’t help that. I don’t want to write about politics. Not because I can’t, but because politics is divisive in nature, and I would much prefer my legacy, if I have one, to be one of uniting people, not tearing them apart.

But when my now very old grandmother discovered that I’d created this place here on Substack, I could see in her eyes that she was very disappointed that it was focused on Masonry and not politics. (Had it been politics, I have no doubt but that she would have been delighted to jump into the fray daily, assuring me that I was misguided at every turn. 😁)

And hey, I write fiction too. Actually I’ve written fiction my entire adult life, this non-fiction stuff is fairly new to me, starting during the pandemic. Usually little stories that would interest no one here, but a full novel once, and who knows, maybe another in the future. All under pen names and rarely read. Silly little stories, but stories that I truly enjoy crafting and that I take a lot of pride in.

Speaking of pride, I should mention that pen names aren’t generally used by authors to hide their true identities, or because the author isn’t proud of the work, rather they are used because they are marketing tools. Brother John Wayne was a movie star. Would Marion Morrison have been? They help with marketing too by setting reader expectations. Picking up a book by Dean Koontz, a reader knows exactly what he will be getting. If that writer was to write a fantasy instead of a horror novel, he would do well to use a pen name, in order to avoid reader confusion and disappointment.

My point, in writing all of this, is simply to remind us to have pride in all that we do. To do what we choose to do well. Even if others don’t understand it, or don’t approve of it.

Life is far too short to do otherwise.