The Thursday! Newsletter 2-18: It's Okay To Be Things
Volume 2, Issue 18
Let me tell you how I am like a cat.
You know how cats like to put themselves into boxes? We've learned, thanks to many bored scientists, that cats squeeze themselves into boxes to make themselves feel more comfortable and secure. It helps them pounce more surely and makes them feel protected because cats have a pretty wicked blind spot directly behind them.
Well, me too. I like to put myself into boxes -- not literal boxes of course (like I have room for a box big enough?), but creative boxes and professional boxes and boxes of likes and dislikes, of "I can't do that" and "I shouldn't do that". I'll hunker down in a box of my own creation and not move unless I absolutely have to. Except, lately, that's not been working very well for me in my creative life. It turns out that I don't quite fit into the box I thought would fit rather nicely. In fact, it turns out that I don't fit into a single box very well at all.
Imagine my surprise!
Okay, maybe you don't have to imagine. Maybe you've had a similar experience. Or maybe you haven't yet and you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about. If you're one of the former, don't run off quite yet because there may still be something interesting for you here. If you're one of the latter, let me introduce you to a man named Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry has written hundreds of poems, eight novels, 55 short stories, a couple history books, and dozens of essays on subject ranging from political activism to folklore to farming and urban planning. He is a teacher, an activist, and a farmer. He fits in no box at all, not even the easy ones in which you might want to stuff him. His activism leans toward the hard progressive side of American politics, yet he is far from orthodox. His poems are lovely, earthy, and moving but his essays can be sharp. He is a legend, the pride of Kentucky (and the first living writer ever inducted into the state's Hall of Fame for writers), and one of the finest poets of the last half-century.
I think what distinguishes him most from other writers, poets, or activists, is that he is no one thing. He's all of them, plus some other things too. When I see what he's done (and continues to do, by the way). I want to be like that. In fact, I've recently learned how I can be more than one thing as well.
A few years ago, when I started writing again, I sat down in a box I called "short story writer" and got as comfortable as I could. I worked on my fiction, entered a few contests, studied some true legends of the craft to see if I could take from what they had done to get better. My stories weren't bad at all and got better. Right now, I write a pretty fair tale.
Then I ran into poetry. I'd loved poetry when I was younger but, for various reasons, I set it aside. Almost a year ago, encouraged by a Masterclass given by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, I rediscovered how much I enjoyed poetry. I even started writing my own. After all, Tolkien filled his works with songs and poems. I could do that, too, couldn't I? Sure. Why not? In the 11 months since then, I've written roughly 70 poems and I've found I like writing poetry more than writing short stories. My first book was a poetry book. My second one will be, too (and my third, but let's not get ahead of ourselves). I set aside a couple story projects on which I'd been working to concentrate on improving my poems. So...that makes me a poet, right? Not a short story writer? I got out of one box and climbed into another?
The short answer is this: I'm both. I'm a poet who writes short stories. I'm a story-writer who also writes poems. And songs. And scraps of lore. I also take pictures and put some of them on Instagram. I do many things. I'm more than one thing. Like Wendell Berry, I dig into whatever art form catches my interest and I do the best I can with it. I'm not on Berry's level yet, but one day, who knows?
Now you. Who knows what you might do once you jump out of the one box and accept that you can have a whole bunch of boxes, some of which might even work well with each other. I've a good friend who is one of the best artists I've ever met but she also writes very, very well. You may just see something from her one day that combines both her art and her writing. I expect it'll take your breath away because she's not just one great thing, but more than one. You aren't just one thing either You're two things or three or as many things as you can set your heart and your hands to do. Want to write a novel then record the audiobook yourself? How about a motivational speech with a song right in the middle of it? Do it. Why not?
You can be more than one creative thing. What's more, I think you should. So there.
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What I Wrote Last Week
"Waiting for the Light", a Friday Fiction Story
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One Last Thing
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