The Myth of the Soulless Genius: Reflections on Talent and Integrity

Do you ever get the urge to write but don’t know what to write? I have that feeling right now. I get the urge to write often, but I’m always at a loss, specifically with how to start anything. I think I place too much importance on getting the beginning of anything right, so I struggle to start everything. At least with my blog, I know that if I write a post that doesn’t do well, I will just write another one within the next day and it might take off. I wish writing novels came as easily as writing blog posts. It seems like it does for Stephen King or James Patterson.

When someone is prolific at something, like those two are at writing novels, it makes me wonder if they sold their souls to the devil for the talent they have. I remember this story about a musician who sold his soul to the devil in order to produce hit music. I think that he was a blues singer from the South. I’m not sure if this is an actual story or if it’s just something I dreamt up one day. It does make me wonder though, if that’s really a thing and if it were would I do it in order to become talented at something I may not otherwise have talent in.

If you were given the opportunity to trade something in order to gain a skill, what would you trade, and for what would you trade it? Maybe one’s soul is too steep a price, but then again what is a soul, and what does it mean to to sell it? Does it mean that you can’t enjoy life? Or perhaps it means that there’s no depth to your character. If that’s the case, I’ve met those people before. You know the type, the ones that only seem to exist on the surface level. While some of them are successful, I don’t think it’s a trend deep enough to draw any conclusions. Maybe some people are just born without a soul? Or perhaps they sold their soul in a past life and they reincarnate soulless through time.

If selling your soul only means that you compromised on something deeply important, like your integrity… haven’t we all done that to some degree at some point? When I look back on my life, which is relatively short there are plenty of things in which I compromised my integrity or broke promises. I still think that I have a soul. Does a soulless person even know that they’re soulless?

I know that I’ve met my fair share of people whom I thought were soulless. Those who are downright wicked. You can sense within them, something missing. I certainly think they’re missing compassion. They also seem to be lacking something deeper than that. I know that if I were to tell one of those people that they didn’t have a soul, it wouldn’t phase them. Perhaps that’s what is missing from them. They no longer see the importance of having a soul. Perhaps that’s what a soul is. The desire to hold onto one’s own integrity.

Maybe that’s why I still think that I have a soul after all these years. Just because I made small sacrifices by my actions, I still believe in my integrity in a broader sense. There are still boundaries that I set for myself. Moral and philosophical boundaries. For example, I don’t intentionally cause harm to others. But doesn’t that just mean that I am kind? Or is it that those two go hand-in-hand?

I’m not quite sure whether I answered my own question or not. However, as you can see… Insomnia does silly things to one’s mind. It’s growing closer to midnight and I’ve only accomplished distracting myself from anything productive, not to mention sleep. Sleep, that elusive bastard. I bet that’s where all the answers are and I’m forbidden from finding them. Oh well, at least these thoughts aren’t just swimming in my mind anymore. Now they’re swimming in yours as well.