In the quest to be clever, I completely forgot about the people that I love and the people that love me. And I went, as I had begun to do, into a wormhole of selfishness, and greediness, and arrogance in thinking that if I would just continue to be speedy and witty and pull together as many fast words and phrases that I could.

That I could be clever enough to buy myself another day without thinking that anybody would find me, pin me down, and say, “you’re a creep.”

When I should have just given that up and played the guitar a little more, I didn’t. So I decided that I’d try to be as clever as possible all the time. And I did that at the expense of people I love, and that feels absolutely terrible. It feels worse than any headline I thought I could get out of.

It’s just not worth being clever. I just quit. I quit the sound bite game, I quite the media game. I’m out. I’m done. I just want to play my guitar to whoever is around. If that means there’s less people because I somehow think that if I’m not witty and I don’t come up with the newest little clever thing, then that’s fine. I just want to play my guitar again with this band.

Are you trying too hard to be clever?

John Mayer and The Quest To Be Clever is a post from: Simonds Media