Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I Get No Respect

I must be the Rodney Dangerfield of writers. I get no respect. Yesterday, I talked to a secretary. After stating the information I was seeking and who I wanted to talk to, she asked, "Is this for your school newspaper?"

Today, somebody hung up on me during an interview. And what contentious topic were we discussing? Global warming? The war in Iraq? Campaign finance reform? No. It was Christmas lights.

Which made me wonder, "Who would Jesus-the reason for the season-hang up on?"

Bah humbug.

You know how some people send off electromagnetic energy that tells sharks to eat them? And others send out signals that tell lightning to strike them twice? Well, my electromagnetism tells people that I'm stupid.

Why? Because I am. I'm out of my element on almost every story I write...law, business, electricity. If I was an expert in any of these fields, do you think I'd be doing this job?

Now, if I wrote stories on, say, Pokemon or Spiderman or how to grow carnivorous plants, I would be smart. Thanks to my sons, I've studied these subjects extensively.

Instead, I get no respect. You know why? Because if people are literate, they can write. So everybody thinks they can do my job. And they're right. They can.

And they should. If they had any questions about writing, they could call me.

Oh sure, I might be smug. I might ask them to interview my Web site instead of me. But I wouldn't hang up on them. No matter how dumb they were. Not even if it was for the school newspaper.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i, for one, think you're brilliant.
no, not everyone can write as well as you can and do.

i think those that hung up on you, or asked if you're writing for a school newspaper, will probably be struck twice by lightning as they're swimming in a shark infested ocean. and when they go to write about their harrowing experience (if they're lucky enough to survive) their computer will catch a very nasty virus and prevent them from ever telling their story.

keep on keepin' on! i love the blog!
and don't let the bastards get you down!

6:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm with Lexi. I won't embarrass you and remind you of all your successes is education, sports, writing, etc. You and I both know you can write just about anything. You're the most versatile person I know. I loved your article in the Daily Record that I read tonight. Being asked if your story was for your school paper could have been a compliment - you sound as young as you look!! The 'hanger upper' obviously had issues and i don't think we'd want to hear what she had to say anyway. Hang in there. Your blog is number one in my 'favorites'!

8:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excuse my French
but "F" um. They are
probably living a miserable
exsistance and it makes them
feel better to try to make
someone else feel bad. Don't
let it get to you!! You know
you are good at what you do.
So keep doin what you do, no
matter what a few others may
not appreciate, many more do.

12:50 PM  

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