I have been accused of being arrogant and self-opinionated, which of course is totally untrue, says he lying through his teeth. The other day an old friend from the UK asked me if I was still self-opinionated and I, honestly I thought, said that I was, or rather I am. While I’m not that proud of this aspect of my character, I have to admit that it has helped me a little bit. After all, believing in yourself is not always such a bad thing, but if you believe in yourself too much you become labelled as arrogant. This is possibly, no definitely, why some people dislike me at first contact, although such people are, thankfully, quite few and far between and others seem to be able to look deeper and understand that there is more there.
Maybe all writers or rather people who write, I would not classify myself as a writer but I like writing and reflecting and expressing my opinions (as some will have noted..) may be considered to be arrogant and opinionated. Speaking personally, if people agree with me, then that is all well and good, if they do not, well, that’s fine too. By expressing opinions we create reactions, and either people start thinking about something or even better they actually act. In which case something may eventually change for the better.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Many of my ex-students are hopping from one internship to another with what appears to be only a slight hope of beginning a career and this is leaving them dispirited which is something that annoys me and being arrogant and self-opinionated I want to do something about this situation. I actually signed up for a meeting of Beppe Grillo supporters, and I was due to go this evening, however my other half is going to get home later than normal meaning that I will probably not make it to the meeting. This annoys me too, because I wanted to see whether I could make a contribution towards nudging the wheels of change forward in this complex country. What exactly I might achieve is uncertain for much greater people than my little self have attempted and failed to break the status quo. At least I want to try to do something, not out of self interest, not totally, but to try to give young people some hope and to make the future seem at least a little sunny. Yes, I’m an arrogant idealist, I guess. I once dressed up in a silly monster costume and spent the day scaring people into donating money to charity. It was during one of those red nose days a long time ago in the UK. Marks and Spencer did not let me scare their customers into donating, which was a shame, but understandable. I raised more than 500 pounds I seem to remember and got my photo in the paper – but not dressed as a monster. It was an act of arrogance, but it helped people.
I shall impose my arrogance on one of these Beppe Grillo meetings another time, in the hope that I can, maybe, possibly, remove the film of apathy which glazes too many of us nowadays. Will I actually achieve something? Who knows, but at least I will have tried. Words are great things, but when they are mixed with actions they can move mountains. And I, arrogantly, like the idea of being someone who took part in the inital planning before the mountain got moved.
Yep, I’m arrogant. Sorry.
