{"id":493,"date":"2010-10-06T11:48:24","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T16:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/?p=493"},"modified":"2010-10-06T11:58:17","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T16:58:17","slug":"an-electronic-monument-to-narcissism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"An Electronic Monument to Narcissism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post&#8217;s title was provided by Grace who hails from some place that affords access to the internet.\u00a0 She posted a comment earlier today that, for some reason, can&#8217;t be located within this website otherwise I would have simply published it.\u00a0 Then again, it might not have gotten the proper attention had it remained as an unnoticeable comment to a rather long blog post, so I&#8217;ll provide it below along with my commentary:<\/p>\n<p><em>This website is like an electronic monument to  narcissism. Could you possibly be more utterly self-obsessed? And, you  seriously treat your girlfriend so well that she is apparently left to  sleep in a damn car and fetch your gear while you race? Good grief, man, get OVER yourself.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>First reaction to this was a smile:\u00a0 could this be a friend taking an opportunity to throw a dig at me?\u00a0 I&#8217;m a perennial target and have no problem with that, but I&#8217;m pretty sure this isn&#8217;t the case&#8230; mostly because my friends aren&#8217;t that clever!<\/p>\n<p>Second reaction to this was also a smile:\u00a0 I felt like saying, &#8220;Duh, all blogs represent some form of vanity, as if to suggest that the world needs to know what&#8217;s going on in the author&#8217;s life&#8230; as if that author is so important that he\/she needs to ensure others are aware.&#8221;\u00a0 Grace might have just earned her merit badge for pointing out the obvious.<\/p>\n<p>There are some people who just don&#8217;t get it.\u00a0 Vanity is a human projection, borne perhaps from insecurity or maybe pride, but in either event, it&#8217;s an undeniable aspect that&#8217;s within all of us.\u00a0 Wikipedia states:\u00a0 &#8220;The name &#8220;narcissism&#8221; was coined by <a title=\"Sigmund Freud\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sigmund_Freud\">Freud<\/a> after <a title=\"Narcissus (mythology)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Narcissus_%28mythology%29\">Narcissus<\/a> who in <a title=\"Greek mythology\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Greek_mythology\">Greek myth<\/a> was a pathologically self-absorbed young man who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. <a title=\"Sigmund Freud\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sigmund_Freud\">Freud<\/a> believed that some narcissism is an essential part of all of us from birth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Not unlike most people, I feel as if my early years were tough.\u00a0 As an adult, I can look back and see a transformation from a person I didn&#8217;t understand or like into the opposite.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t pretend to think that I&#8217;m done growing, but what&#8217;s the harm in taking stock in the path traveled thus far?\u00a0 Ultimately, having pride and some measure of self-confidence makes me a better friend, a better professional, a better partner to my significant other, and a better contributor to society.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, this website isn&#8217;t for everyone.\u00a0 I post on it from time  to time so that friends and family who want to keep in touch with me can  do so without having to actually talk to me.\u00a0 For many, that&#8217;s a  welcome relief!\u00a0 I have some delusions of grandeur in terms of the things  that I&#8217;d like to do with this site, but that would mean spending some  serious, focused time to develop content and design&#8230; and God forbid  that I invest any more energy into something I&#8217;ve created and further morph into exactly the character that Grace has defined.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, this post isn&#8217;t about being self-righteous or telling Grace off.\u00a0 I actually appreciate her comments because it reveals a side of humanity that I don&#8217;t get to experience very often.\u00a0 Most of my contemporaries embrace a different kind of humanism, so providing a counterpoint can only help to provide some insight of the other side.<\/p>\n<p>Yours in egomania,<\/p>\n<p>-GG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post&#8217;s title was provided by Grace who hails from some place that affords access to the internet.\u00a0 She posted a comment earlier today that, for some reason, can&#8217;t be located within this website otherwise I would have simply published it.\u00a0 Then again, it might not have gotten the proper attention had it remained as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}