The way towards progress is often fraught with difficulty. This is what life has taught me, as someone who years ago sought to improve myself in a way that had to be undertaken solitarily. The misconception, I would argue – and perpetuated by the legacy of Thoreau, and uninspired claptrap like Eat, Pray, Love – is that a person has to go on some physical journey to do some soul searching. Quite the contrary.
Having lived in Boston for many years, I take pride in the fact that I am still very much the same person I was before arriving in the States, in terms of my values and principles. Those have intensified, to the point of being unshakable, because being in the midst of volatile and vacuous ways of life – and people – served to strengthen what I discovered was sacred, and often taken for granted, as we are often too easily influenced by the idea that something is "better" than another, based on others' enthusiastic yet rash endorsement of it. That which is American culture, a culture that is more convenient to subscribe to as it corresponds with the sort of self-gratifying lifestyles many find more fitting for themselves and their external goals, despite the profound emptiness that comes with it.
Perhaps that is why many Americans like the author of Eat, Pray, Love felt the need to traverse the world to get away from that emptiness, yet failed to learn anything of substance. Perhaps it's why Thoreau went and sat by a pond for two years back in the nineteenth century. Perhaps that is why so many Americans who seemed to have "had it all" chose to hang themselves lately, knowing that there is something really wrong with American culture.
My worldview though, has changed, as has my understanding and acceptance of certain types of people. Learning to gauge a person's true character – and the strength or lack of it – by observation of their actions, what values they live by, listening to how they speak and the content of their words, and whether all of it matches up. The phony reveals him or herself sooner or later. And it becomes all too easy to walk away, because they give you every reason to.
Mediocrity is not difficult to walk away from.
The mediocre often disguise themselves by shouting out loud about their achievements, and rely on others to lift them up, always, to stroke their ego and ensure that they will appear to be genuine and great, not mediocre. They lead double lives, instead of one real one, because they have their true self to hide. They engage in the exploitation of others to make a name for themselves, and are social climbers who make it a point to reveal who they know – usually non mediocre people – so others can see that they are not mediocre. They excel at selling themselves, and know how to be charming, but are otherwise ignorant about the world, social issues, and humanness – that which includes feeling empathy and consideration, and showing respect and integrity.
The mediocre are incapable of exercising any self-awareness, or wisdom, because they truly believe they are an exceptional human being, without having tasted the bitterness of failure that truly great people have. Often, they will portray this belief about themselves on social media so they can be applauded by an audience, because the mediocre need the validation. The mediocre are impressionable people, and values and principles are irrelevent to them because it stands in their way of self-gratification.
Whether it's duplicitous old friends, or an amoral brother and sister, the mediocre make it too easy to walk away from them, because your biggest fear is that you will become as mediocre as them. The way towards progress is often fraught with difficulty.
