Catching Idle Butterflies

Dead flies in perfume

Last night at Bible study, we read Ecclesiastes 10. We used the same format in that we would read the chapter individually after we prayed and picked out the one verse that popped out of us and discussed why.

The very first verse popped out at me, both for its choice of words and -- at least in my view -- it applied to my circumstances of late.

After praying Kermit then asked, "Did anyone get anything from the first verse?"

I raised my hand and said, "I did."

I could tell by the stunned look on Kermit's face and how all other eyes turned toward me that no one else saw any message in that verse.

"Really?" Kermit asked. "Read the passage and tell us."

The gal sitting next to me, Barb, even said, "Yes, please tell us what you got out of that."

I then read the passage: "Dead flies will cause even a bottle of perfume to stink! Yes, an ounce of foolishness can outweigh a pound of wisdom and honor."

After a short pause to gather my thoughts I said, “I saw it more from a personal point of view in that we listen to criticism, take it more to heart than compliments. We then think of ourselves as a failure, ignoring every single success we’ve had previously.”

I saw a few nods and Kermit asked, “Why is that do you think, that we focus so much on criticism?”

“I have no idea.”

“I agree,” he said, “I’ve found people after a sermon give me compliment after compliment, then one person comes along and says, ‘That sermon wasn’t one of your best. I had no idea where you were coming from with it.’ And what do I focus on the rest of the week?”

At first I thought this particular message applied to how I was feeling about my blog and it was simply another reminder not to worry too much about what other people think.

But then I received my assignment back from my mentor this morning. In one part of the lesson, I used a portion of the novel I want to take with me to the writer’s conference.

This is one of the comments he added: “I think this would work much better if instead of "telling" the story from the journal, you "showed" the story unfolding as it did. I know this is not part of your purpose, but it might work much better that way. I found my interest lagging with this version.”

While informative and not overly critical, my first thought was, “Well, that does it. I can’t take this to the writer’s conference. It’s crap and needs to be entirely rewritten.”

Then I read Voxxylady ’s latest blog entry "Grading Scale"  which states in part:

"An artist is generally her own worst critic: an old saying, but accurate. While my muse is helping me through my editing process, she has to also fight down nagging doubts about whether anyone will want to spend time with my novel, or whether I will be sued for the waste of time. Think I'll put a disclaimer on the front: "Read at your own risk. Author does not guarantee personal fulfillment or enjoyment from reading this novel, which is, by the way, fiction, which means that there could be things in this novel that would not happen in real life." Hmm... that would be similar to fast food restaurants having to put "Caution: contents may be hot" on their coffee cups, right? Have we come to that?

I veered way off track, but I do hope that reviewers and those receiving reviews on this site and everywhere else will remember that one person's opinion is only that."

I still have time to take my mentor's words into consideration and at least see if I can easily apply his comments. But if not, oh well. It is but one man’s opinion.

So my self-flagellation whip remains in its closet, my self-confidence showing not a dent.

And if I end up showing an ounce of foolishness, that's no big deal. It's not as though I ever claimed to be wise, so I won't have lost anything.