First of all a symphony never fed, clothed or sheltered anyone or anything, so even if you did write one, so what?

I have a friend who's pretty bad off on drugs (opiates and meth) who writes, for real, very, very intricate compositions. He is genius-level talented, but he is cripplingly self-absorbed and cannot face the real world, so he lives in a shed behind his parents' house making music and doing drugs. He's 33 years old.

He's actually super "productive". He produces quite a bit of material of pretty high quality pretty much every week. But he's impossible to communicate with beyond jokes and simple stuff. He can't make plans. He doesn't follow through. So, you can't play gigs with him and you can't really take him anywhere.

I don't think he can ever hold a job. I don't think the medication exists to help him in the least bit. And he may be nuts, but despite his inability to "function in society", he is quite intelligent and keen, extremely so. He's basically too smart for his own good.

Meanwhile, I am a pretty mediocre musician. I've put a lot of years into it, and I can play guitar and keys at an intermediate level. I've written some 3 minute rock/pop songs. My band had a buzz in my hometown for a few years. We were ok.

I can, and do, hold down a full time job. I can follow through on the promises I make, and I prefer being able to do so to being high. Which doesn't mean I'm into sobriety. I'm not. But I smoke pot and drink beer in moderation, and I hung up all the other shit years ago.

Both me and my friend are single and childless. We both pretty much spend whatever money we have on whatever we want. I just happen to want to "function in society" (God knows why. Because, seriously, I don't. Pride, maybe?), so I spend mine on housing and bills and mediocre music equipment that I sometimes get to poke around on, and he spends all of his on cigarettes and hard drugs. (His parents bought his fancy music gear.)...

And you know, I can't for the life of me imagine how I am in any way "better" than him or vice versa... I don't think my life is more deserving. In fact, my life is very monotonous and my music is just a hobby to me now. And that dude at least cranks out some impressive-sounding stuff (to my ear), so I dunno.