The unifying theme is resilience and faith. The unifying theme is being a warrior and a motherfucker. It is not fragility. It’s strength. It’s nerve. And “if your Nerve, deny you—,” as Emily Dickinson wrote, “go above your Nerve.” Writing is hard for every last one of us—straight white men included. Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.
It was so fun to write these lines! Perhaps because it’s advice I needed to hear too. The number of times I’ve had to remind myself to keep digging as a writer cannot be counted—in fact I still have to do it every day. As I cheered on this young writer, I was aware that I was cheering on every person who has ever doubted their ability to create. I’m going to guess that even Emily Dickinson struggled to write every now and then.
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