I Tried, Therefore Nobody Should Criticize Me

Let me tell you a quick story.  About a year ago, our ward held a talent show.  I was curious to see what kind of talent my ward had to offer.  I also wanted to see the show  Hey Oh! (That is my Mitch Poth impression)  I was pleasantly surprised at how talented many of my ward members were.  Then they announced the next act was going to be stand up comedy.  I immediately had a bad feeling.  Stand up comedy is incredibly difficult which is why not very many people do it.  I was expecting the worst but hoping for the best for this kid as he walked up the stage and grabbed the mic.

 He opened with some lame joke about being nervous.  Crickets.  Then he rattled off a few more zingers.  Silence.  He continued to tell jokes with the comedic timing of a shot clock as we all realized that this was going to be baaaaad.  Eventually, some of the more Christ-like members of the ward started filling in the silence with some nervous laughs to try and help the situation.  This went on for 20 MINUTES.  This poor kid struggled to get anymore than sympathy giggles from the crowd before he finally finished and sat down.

I, seeing an opportunity to laugh at someone else's misfortune and thereby feel better about myself and my own failures, leaned over to my friend and whispered, "Either that kid's parents are way to easily entertained or they loved him to much to be honest with him." 

How does something like that happen?  He's 20 years old for goodness sakes.  How can you live that long without anyone ever telling you, "Hey, you're not that funny.  You should probably stop doing stand up and find a new hobby."  I just think about the years of neglect by his family and friends to not be honest with this kid.  They probably thought that loving him meant encougarging him in everything he does.  That's not what love is, that's what like is.  When you like somebody you try not to hurt their feelings with brutal honesty.  Loving someone is caring about someone so much and being so close to them that you can offer criticism that will be for their benefit.  Unfortunately for this kid, his parents liked him too much.

Since that night I have noticed a lot of people whose parents also liked them too much, for example, the kid at the RB who obviously hasn't played basketball throwing up a shot with the game on the line.  What is so wrong about constructive critiscism?  Since when did it become rude to be honest with somebody?  Now I understand that you can't shoot down everyone, and I also realize that I overestimate a lot of my own abilities.  The title of my blog implies that I am never wrong for example.  I feel that in today's world constructive criticism has disappeared and has been replaced by meaningless compliments and unwarranted encouragement.  This creates people with irrational confidence and leads to problems later in life when complete strangers (or a full group of strangers as previous discussed) must be the ones to offer criticism.  Criticism from a stranger rarely comes across as constructive, even when it is meant to be, which is why it is up to us to encourage true talent in those close to us and to be honest when the talent is not there. 

This SNL clip is a funny example of what I am talking about.  Enjoy.

Now go out and show someone you love them by telling them they are terrible at something!


P.S. If anyone tells me I should stop blogging I will be very offended.