My Vanity Makes Me Progress

I have been keeping this weblog for three years and have written 272 entries. Actually, it is quite hard for me, as a non-native English speaker, to write that many entries in English.

Why can I keep English weblog? The answer is vanity.

I have just finished an essay written by Sakunosuke Oda, a novelist. He wrote about vanity in the essay as follows.

People can't live without vanity, because they feel so empty. Even if their vanity was just earpickful, they would survive in a crowd relying just on it. Do only little people have vanity? Do only fools have vanity? I don't think so.

人は己惚れが無くてはさびしくて生きておれまい。よしんばそれが耳かきですくう程のささやかな己惚れにせよ、人はそのかけらにすがって群衆の波に漂うているのではなかろうか。果して小人だけが己惚れを持つものだろうか。己惚れは心卑しい愚者だけの持つものだろうか。そうとも思えない。

I don't believe in my will. My will is so weak that I can't achieve anything by my will. How should I do? I use my vanity, because my vanity is much stronger than my will.

It is obvious that writing in English regularly improves my English, but at the same time it is difficult to keep writing in English. I thought that I couldn't keep a private diary in English for years, so I decided to use my vanity, and I started keeping my weblog in English in public.

Comments on my weblog make me happy.If the comments are favorable, I feel elated. I always watch the number of page views, which satisfies my sense of vanity. If I gave up the weblog, the readers of my weblog would know it and I would feel ashamed. They support me keeping weblog in English.

If you want to lose weight, you should declare it publicly and report on the changes in your weight. Your vanity will ensure that you lose weight.

My vanity makes me progress.