Why I Write
I'm cautiously poking my head out of my reclusive shell and looking around. It is so difficult to have a perception of myself as a popular author. My primary teacher is the venerable sage, Lao-Tzu, 6th Century BCE writer of The Tao Te Ching. He states in chapter 56 of his little book that, "Those who know, don't speak. Those who speak, don't know."
I hear those sentences every time I sit to write, yet still I manage to put the words down. It is just "what I do." Words are maps of the territory of Life. They are useful. But they are not the Territory itself. I have spent so many years mistaking the map for the territory. I want to walk in, see, experience, and breathe the Thing Itself.
That is why I write. I am no longer looking to be noticed. I am not a publisher’s delight because I refuse to go “on the road” for the sake of sales. I am trying to bring all of the care, skill, and authenticity I can possibly muster to my art in each moment.
As my path continues to unfold, I find myself writing, not to a market, but to an unknown friend. I want, in some small way, to express a thought or soothe a fear in some unfathomable manner across space and time; to provide an imperfect map that might help you find the Territory. Who you are, dear friend, I don’t necessarily need to know, but it is for you I write.
I hear those sentences every time I sit to write, yet still I manage to put the words down. It is just "what I do." Words are maps of the territory of Life. They are useful. But they are not the Territory itself. I have spent so many years mistaking the map for the territory. I want to walk in, see, experience, and breathe the Thing Itself.
That is why I write. I am no longer looking to be noticed. I am not a publisher’s delight because I refuse to go “on the road” for the sake of sales. I am trying to bring all of the care, skill, and authenticity I can possibly muster to my art in each moment.
As my path continues to unfold, I find myself writing, not to a market, but to an unknown friend. I want, in some small way, to express a thought or soothe a fear in some unfathomable manner across space and time; to provide an imperfect map that might help you find the Territory. Who you are, dear friend, I don’t necessarily need to know, but it is for you I write.
No comments have been added yet.
