Nine-year old Jimmy stood fast, ridged and still in spite of the waves from the sea of awe that bashed his knees. For in front of Jimmy and ten other lucky kids stood Mickey Mantle. Mickey was schooling the boys on the art of hitting a fastball.
Can you even begin to imagine what a kid, who loves baseball more than anything else in the world, would feel like in the presence of a Mickey Mantle? I can't because I've never been in this position. But I have this insatiable appetite to be schooled in the art of writing and therefore, stand fast, ridged and still before the pages of certain authors who write about writing. Put Julia Cameron in front of me and I would stand fast, ridged, still and be drooling at the same time.
I'd like to share some thoughts from two books on writing that I am reading at this time. The first is Zen in the art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I cannot recall the last time that I became so captivated with an author by just reading the preface in his book.
Ray devotes a chapter to keeping and feeding our Muse. Our Muse is fed from our experiences. Rays says:
For it is is the totality of experience reckoned with, filed and forgotten, that each man is truly different from all others in the world.
What this says to me is that each and every person on this planet has the ability to make a unique contribution. Some writers will write and we'll learn of their contribution. But what about the rest of us who write? Does this not present billions of gold mines to be prospected from by those who wish to know their fellow man a little bit better?
The second book, Writing to Change the World, is written by Mary Pipher. Here is what Mary has to say about success:
We all work within constraints that define us, hinder us, and teach us what we need to know. Success means we have done our best. We have not squandered our gifts or ignored our responsibilities. We have given our time and talents to help others. We have used our freedom to free someone else. Success is not fame or awards; it is having our ideas discussed by other people.
At first I became mesmerized with this last sentence. As a writer, I was not sure there could be a more poignant definition of success. And then I thought about the combination of these two thoughts from these two different writers.
We have given our time and unique individual talents to help others. We have used our unique individual freedom to free someone else. Success is not fame or awards; it is having our unique individual ideas discussed by other people.
Fifty plus year old Davie stood fast, ridged and still in spite of the waves from the sea of awe that bashed his knees. For in front of him stood Julia, Anne, Natalie, Carolyn, Brenda, Dorothea, Gabriele, Joanna and Roy...
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