Do you blog or write and share to the masses (however intimate or wide) and wonder why you do it? I’ve written professionally for 20 years, sharing intimate opinions and ideas across 11 columns, and I’ve blogged for seven years.
I blog here for free. I’ve written roughly three posts a week and also ran my I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program for two years without pecuniary recompense.
I’ve stopped often and asked myself why I do it. Most writers do, even when they’re paid handsomely. Because, on balance, we mostly give more than we get back. If you weigh up the blood and sweat and tears lost (priceless!).
I spoke to poet David Whyte about this when we met during his Australian tour. I asked if he felt a responsibility to write. He has a supremely special knack for going down close to the soul of us all and emerging with words that say it as we know it and need it expressed for us. It’s painful for him. I can tell.
He replies: “Absolutely, a responsibility”.
Then Jo, who I’ve turned on to Whyte, sent this to me. Sensing a waft of despair come over me as to What The Hell I’m Doing On This Planet. It wafts often.
In the silence that follows
a great line
you can feel Lazarus
deep inside
even the laziest, most deathly afraid
part of you,
lift up his hands and walk toward the light.
David Whyte
This is why many people write. Even those of us who are not supremely special with our lines. But it’s what we aim for, right? Creating that light that can lift even lazy souls. Or even just the lazy parts of our own souls. We all want to be lifted.
Whose lines lift your lazy parts right now?
