WWN40 : How to Live Forever

Yesterday I posted a tweet that I thought was worth expanding upon.

But as I expanded on it I ended up saying something quite different, and I think more profoundly helpful for many of us in our modern status-obsessed society.

So buckle up, dear reader.

Because this newsletter did not go where I thought it would.

I thought it was a simple story of success.

I thought it was straightforward to tell.

In one sense it is…

And yet…

And yet…

There’s more to it than the surface simplicity…

Those are words collected and honed by King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived.

They tell of what it takes to be recognised. To stand before kings.

In other words, what really matters when you want to stand out in the crowd? How do you get the attention of important people? How do you “build a brand” online in the modern parlance.

How do you become wildly successful to the point that you will be remembered down through the ages?

• Skill.

• Excellence.

• Achievement.

Which is a long and fancy way of saying you need to be good at what you do, instead of focusing on boasting about in on social media.

Want to grow on X-Twitter? Get good at something and talk about it.
Want to grow your email list? Get good at something and talk about it.
Want to grow on Instagram? Get a boob job…

…I mean, get good at something and talk about it.

Austen was magnificently skilled as a writer. She understood people, captured it in an inimitable and witty style, and spoke deep truths about humanity that are still echoing today.

If you want to be remembered as a great writer, you have to become a great writer first.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but many people today try and skip this. They try and stand before kings long before they are skillful in their work.

There are smoke and mirrors tactics that can make that achievable for a time.

But only for a time.

On a long enough timeline you always get found out. The kings will realise, and point, and laugh. And even if you fool your generation, your work will never be robust enough to stand the test of the ages.

Be honest, do you think that people will be poring over the tweets of Dickie Bush and Nicholass Cole in a century? Or even in a decade? Heck, I’d give it even odds after a year.

(And that’s considering the entire corpus, each individual tweet will be forgotten in minutes.)

Writers who spend more time perfecting their ability than preening for their audience will have a greater chance to live forever.

And yet…

And yet…

There are many skilled authors who are long forgotten. And even for Austen, we are now at a time when nobody remembers her.

Yes, we have her books.

But who remember Austen, the woman? Who really knows her? Who knows much about her beyond dry facts on paper about her life?

Nobody at all!

The same is true of Shakespeare, Dickens, Homer, Herbert, Tennyson and many more.

They are gone and forgotten. They were not immortal even if their writing is.

Those are the words of Qoheleth, the preacher. A man I also take to be King Solomon in his later years, but that’s a whole different newsletter. He wrote pseudonomously so let’s leave it at Qoheleth.

He reminds us that even the wise perish and are forgotten.

Even those who stood before kings will fade away.

The greatest writers, along with our great statemen, our great politicians (hah), our great performers, celebrities, craftsmen and more.

All are dust and to dust they shall return and the memory of them will be forgotten.

And yet…

And yet…

Even those who are long forgotten still live on. Those whose name nobody knows shaped this world more than you realise.

You know whose work lasts forever? Austen’s parents. Her teachers. Anyone who encouraged her to write. Anyone who bought her books and paid her bills. The same, again, is true of Shakespeare, Dickens, Homer, Herbert, Tennyson and many more.

The stone sinks beneath the surface and is forgotten and yet the ripples roll on and out.

Long after the ink fades, the impact lives on.

So how do you live forever?

By accepting you will never live forever.

By living well, content to die forgotten. By raising your kids well. By being excellent in your work. By making something that lasts and letting the ripples it casts in the ponds of time roll out until they too are forgotten and nobody remembers the name of the one who started them.

In other words, by not caring what people think on social media and working to be excellent at everything you do.

Which means we’ve come full circle to where we started.

And yet I hope we’re wiser for it.

Until next week, may your pipe smoke well your whole life long and your life impact many people who will never know your name,

James Carran, Craftsman Writer

fin

But not quite fin for the fine folks in Craftsman’s Corner who keep the lights on around here.

For them, an insight I found apposite…