Today I received a text from a friend of the person I’m writing my latest book about.
He’s a nice guy. A great guy. A wonderful guy. But he thinks a biography should be 100 percent positive, and the true confirmations of a person’s character come from glowing stories.
I disagree.
Character is measured positively and negatively, and is extremely complicated. A man who steals can have high character. A man who prays daily can have low character. There is no exact measure. No 100 percent way of knowing. But, if we only focus on a person’s good deeds and shining moments, we fail to know who the individual truly was, and what made him special. We’re all flawed—it’s how we approach, accept and deal with those flaws that reveals us.
PS: I hate Vlad signing with Baltimore—the graveyard for no-longer-significant athletes …
