The Power of Writing (Even if it ain't Good)

Tonight my sister and I went out to run errands and we found ourselves browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble. I came across a book called Letters to Jackie: Condolences From a Grieving Nation and was kind of rooted in place for awhile as I flipped through the pages.

What held me there was the writing in these letters. Many of them were from uneducated, poor Americans who took to paper the best they could to express their sorrow and to reach out and offer prayers and condolences. Many of them noted that they couldn't write well ("I wish I write fasser") but still, they wrote. And not knowing how to spell words or even construct a proper sentence ("I sorry for the kill") the intention was there and it was heartbreaking.

I think it was the goodwill that came through more than anything and the inability of these folks to express themselves in writing in a traditional form didn't impede the meaning. It made me think about how I struggle as a writer to allow the emotion to remain and yet still present a clean, grammatically correct text. I was feeling like I need to just ignore that internal editor and sit down and write when I opened up Lost Edens and saw a lay versus lie issue that we missed in all the rounds of editing. Does it matter, really, that lay is where lie should be? I still think it does. But the letters I read tonight reminded me that what matters more is what brings us to the page and having the courage to write, no matter the obstacle.