WHY

OK, so this pic above was created by my brother-in-law, the fantastic artist, Akwetey.

I asked him, can you (1) create an image for me that’s ultra current to the point of being futuristic, while (2) also suggesting deep roots in an ancient storytelling past and while you’re at it (3) make it inspiringly beautiful?

Easy enough, right?

Anyway: what he came up with is IMHO a triumph. It manages to capture much of what I’m up to with, and what I believe about, writing.

The stories we tell ourselves build our reality. The stories we tell determine our reality. I think the writer’s job is to get down into the engine room of the soul, push the right buttons, grease the right gears, and light up that deep circuit board. For the stories we believe about the world shape whether we might triumph in it.

For me, the best stories are rooted in our collective storytelling past. Literature is a pretty ancient game, with pretty ancient methods. I cherish our timeworn tools: our incantations, our parables, our catharses, our jokes, our sermons, our heroes. I love it when a story can be boiled down enough to make sense to a caveman.

Meanwhile, back in this century, I, like everyone else, crave the fresh. I want attitudes. I want a new filter to put on reality. Signposts on how to get by.

And not just get by. See, I believe each one of us is heroic in our own way. We all are knights, facing down our daily dragons. We all are explorers, scanning this morning's uncharted territories. And I also believe that each last one of us holds the tools in our spirits to vanquish what’s before us.

In the end, my favorite art doesn’t just imagine. It invigorates. It inspires. It fills the cup to the brim, and gives fresh appetite for life. I come to story for the glory. And there is glory for the least, as there is for the greatest.

Such is what I love to read. Such is what I try to write….

The struggle for transcendent art is real. And it is so very, very worth it. To paraphrase Hamlet, in this world “there is nothing either good or bad, but a story made it so.”

Thanks for reading. And now…back to those daily dragons.

*Photo by @akwetey, all rights reserved.