Keep Your Stumbles To Yourself

I remember an anecdote about someone who was an extra on a film or television shoot. It was a street scene, and she was carrying groceries through the background. During a take, she tripped and fell. Afraid that she had ruined the shot, she rushed up to the camera, frantically warning the crew that she had tripped and fell. Of course, the director and the rest of the crew were livid. This person had been an out-of-focus blob the size of a thumbnail until she came up into the foreground and interrupted the actors. If she had only kept her mouth shut and done what people naturally do when they trip and spill their groceries, at worst no one would have noticed. At best, people could very well have mistaken this accident for a deliberate choice and rewarded her.

A lot of mistakes that we make are like that: imperceptible to the observer and dangerous to us only if we say something. In that respect it's kind of like Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart". It was the unrestrained conscience of the murderer which did him in. When it comes to the work of others, and particularly artwork, I always discourage people from saying anything about flaws. The reality is that only the artist will ever know what was meant to be, and which parts of what is are mistakes that mar the piece. Have you ever heard the joke about a painting hanging in a gallery which garners great praise until the artist comes and turns it upside-down as he intended?

When I slip up, I always consider whether or not any harm will actually come to others should the error go unreported. Should there be no harm, or at least no harm to myself that I can't fix or deal with, I just keep my mouth shut. I have had some things go wrong when I was alone that I was embarrassed enough by that I resolved to take them to my grave. Other things were not embarrassing exactly, but were best not to draw any attention to. Little things go wrong with this blog sometimes, as they do with all online entities. Other blog operators seem to have the idea that they're running a publicly-traded corporation that has to blab about everything. When some glitch makes it difficult to get things done with mine, I soldier through it quietly so that God willing, the content I create continues to shine alone untainted.

I think this is the way to go in general. Now, a wall of silence is often the wrong thing to do. If there's a fire in the back your apartment and the landlord comes to the door, it would be wise to say something instead of trying to play it off in hopes of keeping the security deposit. Do consider, however, the best possible outcome of trumpeting lesser personal slip-ups. If it starts to sound like checking to see if you got barbecue sauce on your clothes by feeling around with sauce-covered hands, it's probably best to not say anything.