Humble Pie

A friend gave me the wonderful novel *The Monsters of Templeton* for Christmas. In it, the main character complains of constantly being served up helping after helping of humble pie. Why all the humbling, she asks her mom. Maybe you needed it, her mom replies.

I was on my way into the airport this morning, and I'm SO important that I need to check my Blackberry to make sure I haven't missed anything pressing. Well, it's partly about feeling important. It's also partly about always feeling slightly guilty when I go out of town, like maybe something bad really will happen and I won't be there to deal with it.

I guess that's also about feeling important.

Anyway, there were, in fact, no emails of great importance, but one did catch my eye. It was an announcement going out to a listserv, THE listserv in my profession, about the special issue of the journal that I have an article--my first single-authored article--in. A wee frisson of excitement. People I know might see my name!

Except, as I scrolled down the email, I didn't see my article listed.

What? I wondered. What the hell? Did I not get published and I don't know about it? Did the article get moved to some other issue?

I almost stopped right there, in the freezing cold and whipping winds of Denver International Airport's parking lot, to email the editor with a big old WTF. I almost did. Instead, I waited to get into the concourse, plunked down in the middle of the floor, and emailed her then. Muuuuch better. My email was polite, but still WTF?

The editor politely reminded that my article was going to be published in another journal, not the one she had sent the announcement out about. My article would be announced tomorrow.

Why do I have to be so hasty? Why do I care about these little things? Fact is, all of two academics might ever read that thing. Fact is, it's not a good article--I forced that thing out like a big turd because I had to. It's not as good as the stuff I'm writing now. And, Jesus. Who cares? Such small potatoes. Such humble pie.

I'm such a dork. I'm helpless. I'll always be a dork.

Humble pie, humble pie, it fills you up.
Humble pie, humble pie, it tastes so good.
Humble pie, humble pie, you won't forget.
Humble pie, humble pie, tastes like it should.