Wednesday, 9 October
 |
| Kathmandu |
Happy Birthday Jack!
Sixteen is a milestone.
Enjoy the moment. Make sure someone
captures you in a photo. At some point
during this day sit down and make a journal entry. Hold onto it like it is a time capsule. It will make for an interesting reference
point. Buckle up. Your life only speeds up from here.
It has been too many years since we last talked. You were very young. Now your life is mostly mystery to me. But I still know you, in the intuitive way any
Dad feels he knows his kids. So let me
say this - you were meant to express your thoughts in writing. I don’t say this because I necessarily believe
you’re destined to be an author of books.
That may well come to pass but it isn’t necessary. As I well remember, you have wonderful ideas
and you show a talent for expressing your thoughts with potent words and clear phrase.
The process of living is what occupies the writer with
something particularly worthy to say. One’s
own personal experience is center-most to understanding the lives of those
around you. You can’t run from the joys
and pains of love, for starts. Reward
yourself by experiencing all the human feelings granted to us in life. It gives us our needed point of view. There’s always conflict involved in finding
one’s own perspective. Examine all that
it is you feel. Carefully note your own
difficulties and involuntary thoughts when lost in emotions of love, anger,
loss, irritation, triumph. You name
it. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to
give all of it expression. If you’re
parched in the desert you can douse your thirst the first chance you get or you
can first fumble with the canteen cap.
This detail of impatience better tells the reader what he needs to know. If you depict experience with honesty you
enable them to be in your place or that of your character. They don’t want to read about a dead body
being discovered. They want to
experience stumbling across the body themselves. Often, while reading compelling prose, I find
myself thinking, “God, I know how you feel.
Now what do you do? Really!” Either I relate to what happens next or I’m
surprised, but hopefully not disbelieving.
You don’t want to remind me you’re concocting a story.
Sounds like fiction writing, doesn't it? It doesn't have to be. So long as you’re not authoring a legal
contract you can let your reader know there is a human being behind these
words, no matter the topic. If you
thoroughly understand your subject you can even weave the principles of
chemistry into a compelling narrative. That
sounds like a stretch but the activities of people always has the potential for
an interesting story. So why aren't textbooks more fascinating? This is a
special case. Textbooks aren't about
being popular. Their success requires
not offending the greatest number of people in order to meet the approval of
school boards from Kansas to Texas to California. If you write something of interest it is
bound to offend someone. You might say
the same thing about truth. Truth will
set you free or really set you off. Schools
have enough challenge teaching kids without having to deal with a raucous
gathering of inflamed parents. School
book truth is safe truth or it doesn't see the light of day, if at all possible. It takes real talent to be equally dull to
everyone.
I considered taking up writing but it required something I spent
too many years running from – life itself.
What is it one can write that is of interest to anyone while playing it
safe? OK, I’m sure there are a few stories
that are both clever and innocuous but let’s say I’m interested in reaching an
audience that’s lived a few years. How
do I hold the interest of people faced with the challenges of their own complicated
lives? I’d better know something of what
I’m talking about. Even a story wrapped
in fantasy requires authenticity in the characters portrayed. I can’t depict believable reactions involved
in human conflict if I've carefully avoided stressful situations in my own
life. Living life fully is one that
involves taking risks; and risk necessarily involves familiarity with failure and
disappointment as well as celebrating the occasional reward. We take on a full plate of experiences
knowing that we’re going to have to consume it all as best we can. If I’m at all finicky about this then I give
up on writing and settle for witnessing the interesting lives others lead on
TV.
So now you've turned sixteen. The truly engrossing aspects of being human
are just now being made available to you.
Keep yourself open to possibility.
Have fun. Be brave… and have pen and
paper at the ready. Happy Birthday!
Love,
Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment