Mike Cavanagh's Blog, page 2
September 1, 2016
Am I a writer?
So, I have a memoir published. Does that make me a writer? Before I was published but I was writing like crazy: was I a writer then? What connotations reside in being 'a writer'? Does this mean you have to be a 'professional' i.e. be making a living; or just have made some money from writing? Maybe just do it a lot and have people who read what you write? What if you write a lot but few (if anyone) reads what you write?
We - humans - love to categorise and label. It helps a lot in dealing with so much information and was a great survival strategy when taking too long to decide could kill you. Perceiving the patterns in what we see was crucial: that thing in the grass; can I eat it, or will it eat me? Whoops took too long to decide; dead now, or going hungry.
But life began getting a whole lot more complicated when we knew more people in a day than our naked, not-out-of-Africa-yet forebears who were running around the savannah would meet and know in a year. Categorising and labelling now comes at a greater cost: losing subtlety, individuality. Too many people to 'process' in order to understand and form a nuanced individual impression of. Easier to grab a quick moniker and apply like an emoticon to people we meet.
Except - well, there was always going to be an 'except' - what any particular label means to one person is not the same as what it means to another. Am I writer? Depends on who you ask. Ask me and my unequivocal answer is: Yes? No? Maybe? Can you repeat the question? (Thank you Maroon 5!).
This is a nice safe discussion when the label is 'writer'. It becomes a whole different beast when you start using other labels. White. Black. Christian. Islam. Male. Female. Those labels and how they're used, unfortunately, can also result in death or hunger. Words, in fact, can be far more effective, and hurtful, than sticks and stones. Words carry meaning, and meaning is born of intent.
Ultimately, there is only one absolute label to apply and be guided by: human.
Me. I think a writer. Just saying.
We - humans - love to categorise and label. It helps a lot in dealing with so much information and was a great survival strategy when taking too long to decide could kill you. Perceiving the patterns in what we see was crucial: that thing in the grass; can I eat it, or will it eat me? Whoops took too long to decide; dead now, or going hungry.
But life began getting a whole lot more complicated when we knew more people in a day than our naked, not-out-of-Africa-yet forebears who were running around the savannah would meet and know in a year. Categorising and labelling now comes at a greater cost: losing subtlety, individuality. Too many people to 'process' in order to understand and form a nuanced individual impression of. Easier to grab a quick moniker and apply like an emoticon to people we meet.
Except - well, there was always going to be an 'except' - what any particular label means to one person is not the same as what it means to another. Am I writer? Depends on who you ask. Ask me and my unequivocal answer is: Yes? No? Maybe? Can you repeat the question? (Thank you Maroon 5!).
This is a nice safe discussion when the label is 'writer'. It becomes a whole different beast when you start using other labels. White. Black. Christian. Islam. Male. Female. Those labels and how they're used, unfortunately, can also result in death or hunger. Words, in fact, can be far more effective, and hurtful, than sticks and stones. Words carry meaning, and meaning is born of intent.
Ultimately, there is only one absolute label to apply and be guided by: human.
Me. I think a writer. Just saying.
