How can you improve your quality of life through writing?
There are several misconceptions about writing I developed early on. The one I wish to address in this post came from someone at a poetry conference in Chicago. I had volunteered to help out before the event in exchange for a free ticket to hear the speakers and eat a fancy dinner with other people who ostensibly loved poetry. Across the table from me was a woman dressed like she came out of Madmen. She looked at me as a lynx would look at another passing snow hare after already having made a kill, and said,
“Don’t waste your life on writing while you’re young. You should live. You can write later.”
For one year, I let this torment me. When I sat down to write, I would often think of her words:
“You should be living, not writing.” I felt whenever I sat down that I should be using that time to be running outside, or going to a museum, or reading, or socializing, or watching a movie.
Luckily, a professor saved me. I expressed my concern and he said, “You are still alive when you write, aren’t you?”
Although running around and doing things is wonderful and gives meaning to my life, so does writing. Writing is an odd form of meditation. A meditation which records the thoughts passing through your head, so you can return to them and deepen them and polish them. And writing helps you ready and strengthen yourself for the inevitable changes in life: it develops your mental flexibility.
What if I said, “You should be living, not meditating”? What would you say? You’d probably know that meditation helps calm the mind, and focus your attention and even rests you in a very special way. After meditation, you feel more at peace and more able to direct your energy to a task. Meditation helps you better decide which task to focus on as well.
Don’t you think that perhaps writing is like meditation? That writing helps you live more at the ready and be more fully aware?