“
We laugh. That’s life — ironic, unfair. But in our world it’s rarely bad luck or lack of support that brings on the doom. Riding through the wreckage of my friends’ lives, I can see well-placed wrenches stuck in the works. Perhaps even glimpse someone shooting themselves in the foot. Everyone likes to know they tried, and usually that they failed and can stop trying now.
I call it the ninety-nine percent success story. The noble failure. Hundreds of novels lie around completed but not published, albums recorded but not pressed, tours booked then hastily cancelled, articles written but never sent. Vast and impressive castles are build, but they’re not inhabitable. Just one (small) nail in the right place and we could move in, but I show up with a hammer and they block my way. “No,” they say. “Not yet.”
Why is everyone so scared to put in that last one percent? Having gone through the pains of labor, can they not bear to see their child leave the nest? Having sown the seed and plowed the field, how can they stand by and let the fruit rot on the tree?
…
As a community, it’s our duty to try to bring everyone’s creativity and ambitious plans to the fore, and to fruition, instead of passively watching and encouraging that potential to be wasted. To keep laughing, but keep the hard work and the hope that comes with it from becoming a joke. As a friend, it’s my duty to be that one percent.
”Aaron Cometbus, Cometbus #53
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