Giving Prizes to Ourselves

START A WEBSITE, do some writing, and publish it, and before long somebody is gonna make a joke about winning the Pulitzer prize. Or maybe it isn't a joke, NO matter what you write, most people are gonna be uninterested, but a few are going to like it, and think you a genius. Focus! they will say. Write about this topic, or that topic, develop a topic fully, and stop this business of writing short scattered pieces about random, scattered thoughts, and you'll have something, and you'll be somebody. The can't miss path to the pulitzer. Ah,the marvels of received advice! Bring more, and pile it higher! We certainly are immersed in our prize giving and winning, and in our competition for success, aren't we? If you happen to stumble into an American high school on the day of a blood drive, you'll see dozens of seventeen year olds, lying on lounger chairs in the cafeteria, with needles in their arms, checking each other's blood bags, trying to squeeze blood out of their bodies with all haste, in order to....win something? Its all in good fun, but this is what you'll see, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they are doing nothing other than modeling behavior reflective of the values of the culture into which they were, presumably without their permission or approval, born. This(american) is a competitive culture. Its just too damned bad that we all too oftern forget that its only fun and games, or supposed to be. The contemporary frequency with which high school football players engage in fights, after games, is a sure fire indication of this recurrent american memory lapse. AS for prize giving and winning? Bring on more of it!The more prizes and winners the better! After all, its all in good fun. Then comes the choice of whether to frame you rpulitzer, or your Nobel prize, or build a trophy case for them, or rather simply put them in a dark closet and let them gather dust. Remember this; pirzes, by and large, are nothing more than somebody's personal opinion, or the results of a vote taken by a group of people. And whatever that's worth. It may very well be that you consider your own personal opinion to have some value, maybe even equal value. Therefore, if you happen not to've won the pulitzer prize, and think that you should have, merely invent your own prize, name it after yourself if you wish, and then award it to yourself, with all due pomp and ceremony. With a little imagination, the emotional satisfaction will be exactly the same.