Hi Jesse,

I do believe that you closed the conversation, but I would like to respond to a few points you made here.

Until about 10 years ago, I would never have dared to call anyone stupid. When my daughter called some people stupid, I was deeply shocked, but these last ten years have finally convinced me that, just as highly intelligent people exist (Einstein), so do people with very little intelligence. I would define the term as the degree to which people can extrapolate accurate conclusions from factual evidence. They would also be able to differentiate fact from fiction.

You are correct that there are people with talent who are never afforded the opportunity to develop it. I think Thomas Gray spoke about that in his poem “Elegy written in a country churchyard.”

I would also say that while it is absolutely true that there are people who didn’t have the opportunity to do this or that (as with myself), that’s not the reason most people who want to write aren’t able to succeed. The bottom line is simply that they are nowhere near as good as they need to be in order to be recognised.

I don’t think one can put talent aside. One either has it, or one doesn’t. I also don’t buy into the idea that there are millions of people who are all highly creative, but because they have imposter syndrome, they are blocking their creativity. The bottom line is that they simply are not creative, but they desperately want to be an artist of one sort or another.

With regard to calling oneself an artist just because they want to create, let’s go all the way. Why don’t we just allow people to call themselves doctors just because they like to play with bandages and injection needles. It doesn’t work that way. Everybody in the entire world ‘creates’ one thing or another. It may be a dish of food or a pillow slip. It may be embroidery or a doodle. That does not qualify them to tell other people that they are an artist or a chef, etc.

When we look in a dictionary, these words are all very definitely associated with a profession – not with a hobby or a dream that that is what one wants to be.

I think it’s clear that we have different perspectives about this. I was educated at a school where excellence in all things was the norm. I never lost that, and I, therefore, probably have far higher standards and expectations than most. That is my liability.