Someone has said, “We are inveterate legend-makers and lovers of illusion; we are unwilling to remain prisoners of hard fact, and we spin fairy tales of fancies powers and attribute them to ourselves and others.” Do we not find this true very often? Do we not come in contact with people almost daily about whom these lines could be said? Let us watch ourselves and see that we do not become inveterate legend-makers and lovers of illusion.
When we attribute these fairy tales to others, we are practicing what may be called “hero worship.” Often some public leader may be pretending to be more than he really is, yet for some of his actions, or for something he has said we praise and honor him. Perhaps nine out of ten are due honor and praise, yet many times the tenth gets more than he is due for he has pretended to be more than he is. We should know more of the character and insight of a person before we are caught guilty of this practice.
Are we not guilty of pretense in our school life? How often one hears on a college campus this expression or a similar one, “I got by today by fluffing the professor, and pretending I had studied.” In the long run the pretense will prove false, and the bluffing will have been in vain.
How much of our friendship is pretended. Are those whom we claim as our real friends always true, or are they merely pretending to be? Sometimes the one you claim as your dearest friend is only pretending to be such. Perhaps that person wants you to do something for him or her, and pretends to be your friend as long as they need you for that purpose. Often it is quite a task to distinguish the really true friend.
But, just as we do no want to pretend too much, so we do not want to underestimate ourselves. Remey de Gourmonth, in one of his essays, says, “The man who overestimates himself is also he who is capable of surpassing himself.” If we did not admit we had self-confidence, we could never undertake difficult things [that?] are probably the most worthy to attempt, and unless we do admit that we have confidence in ourselves, we would seldom, if ever, attempt them.
Lead editorial in Queens Blues, Queens University of Charlotte Student Newspaper, March 6, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/2018236529/1926-03-06/ed-1/seq-2/
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