Humans are born with a drive to create.
From the cave paintings in Lascaux and the first carved arrowheads to the Mona Lisa and the Brooklyn Bridge. From a 3-year-old's scribbles on the wall to a graduate's thesis, we are predisposed to use our hands to make something new.
And along with the drive to create, there is the desire to improve ' bigger buildings, better technology, aisles of self-help books at Barnes and Noble. The adage if at first you don't succeed
try try again can be applied to nearly every industry and every personal endeavor.
I am a journalist. I write articles to share news with readers, and on Tuesdays I am privileged to share 600 words of my thoughts with readers of this column.
Surely it's not a mammoth or earth-shattering creation, but that doesn't mean I don't want each week's column to be better than the one before.
By having what I write published, I face public criticism and differing opinions every week.
Everyone's a critic.
But I knew that when I signed up for the job, I've joined the ranks of others in the public eye: anyone who's ever published a book or released a CD, politicians, celebrities. Anyone with wide exposure risks paying for it with public criticism.
When my brothers ' in the spirit of any true sports fan ' got upset when their favorite player missed a catch or struck out, screaming at the TV and throwing their hands up in disgust, my mother would ask them, Well could you do any better?
Probably not, but the professional athlete they are yelling through the TV at might be able to do better. The harshest critic is rarely the one in the trenches.
How often do we comment on how bad a song or movie or TV show is? And then how often do we exercise the songwriter, videographer or actor in us? I know for me it's not nearly often enough to merit the amount of criticism I throw around.
Winston Churchill said, Criticism may not be agreeable
but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
Without pain, the mind might never know the body is hurt. Without criticism, the creator might never know his creation can improve.
Private criticism might never reach the right ears to instigate improvement, but public criticism ' a complaint letter, a phone call, a letter to the editor, a blog post or even a column ' might be seen or heard and might instigate change.
The trick is to start gently and back every argument. Although few like to admit being wrong (and I certainly count myself among those ranks whether I'm playing the roll of the critic or the criticized), most people would rather improve their masterpieces than stubbornly refuse to change.
As long as there are opinions, there will be critics. The hope is that those who have placed themselves in public view will have enough skill to sort out what is constructive and will help nurture growth, and what will not.
Differing opinions make the world an interesting, dynamic place. Solidly backed criticism can make the robust stronger, the respectable better and drive motivated people to make their creations the best they can be.
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Gina Beach
