Why are we even writers, those of us who spend much of our time thinking about, and writing about things? Is it a higher calling, something that invades the most holy of ourselves, reaches in and wrenches out things deep and meaningful?
Well, looking ot some of the trash I sometimes write, that certainly isn’t the case. But sometimes, I do feel something almost holy has reached inside of my mind, and wrenched parts of me that have been sitting there forever, wating for the correct time to emerge, startling me with the depth of meaning there, so I wonder who it was that put those words in my head.
So writing things deep and meaningful, as some writers do, sometimes, is certainly one of the reasons for writers, to show, or to remind others about things felt important enough to write about, and then work to share these words with others. Writers can be almost a conscience keeping people honest, or reminding them anyway, if and when they stray from the path of honesty, anyway.
But writers are fun too, penning limericks, and cute little books for children, sometimes with a pithy thought hidden amongs the funnish and funny parts. Writers of comedy, they bring laughs to us, and surely making others laugh is a fine thing to do, we all need more good laughs, if you ask me!
Writers remember, and comment on things from the past, in the hope others may learn, and do better in the future. A vain hope, that one, it seems at times, but writers are at least trying to make things go better. And of course that’s another thing writers do, they tell people how to do things, based on what they have done, or seen done, sharing knowledge, improving people’s lives.
So being there to help other people live better lives, that is certainly one of the things writers are for. Showing where people have got it wrong too, that is an important task of writers. Making people pay attention and act to prevent the bad things happening is certainly what some writers do, or at least try to do. A fruitless task at times, that one, but at least there are writers working to try to make it happen.
Are writers the positive polly ones, who see things, and work at showing the things, bring better things to others, reminding them about the beauty of Nature? When I write a poem about my bird bath, and the shenanigins happening there, and then go on to share that poem with others, am I hoping I might show, through metaphor, the idea that greed and need are different things, and that there are, or may be, other answers to life’s ‘issues’?
Well I wrote that poem today, who knows where or if that poem will go anywhere beyond the space it was written. Not every word, every poem or story has to go out into the world. Sometimes people are writers so they can write things, issues, out of their heads, and find peace. And sometimes it’s so they can make note of things they find interesting, that will be there to remind them of that interesting thing, if they need a bit of geeing up.
Sometimes writers are for those people to live the life that best suits the how and why they want to live. Writing, sharing or not, their words, thinking, penning poems or prose, pontificating, perhaps, but just being a writer, that is what that person is for, to Be A Writer.
I’d love to know how you feel about this – why are you a writer?
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 