this seems a fantastic question to ask of value, particularly because i sometimes sense a value in things through the way other people know those things. i think the true answer for me is mixed and supplanted in some ways. as it relates to the question from your original email, value seems like a term used to lift up the edge of what makes things feel good and worth doing in life.
with that intent/definition i sense a meaningful amount of value in both shared and hidden/kept works i have written.
if i drew a venn diagram of my "felt sense" of writing, split between two bubbles "shared" and "kept" works, the overlapping bit would be a warm color (likely tawny) representing what it means to me to purely write (regardless of audience).
the "shared" bubble would be more orange, hot with tinged anxiety and excitement. i enjoy writing for and with other people, and it provides a different feeling of release and therapy that i get from writing only for myself. the joy i find in writing for an audience of one, or anyone, also greatly depends on the audience. i prefer to write for/to people i love. it's lucky i love a lot of people. more than i know.
the "kept" bubble in this (only currently-dichotomous) venn would be the colors of a deciduous forest from across a small valley. some of the photosynthesizing hues left behind, many new stages of dying and repurposing-light happening in a spectrum from gold to mud.
writing for myself is like standing in the forest alone. standing far enough from anything human that the only frightening thing to see would likely be a person. or a reflection.
when i am my audience i get to be in the forest, and even smell it sometimes. this is how i make sense of the things i can not find answers for, and the ache that keeps me asking questions. i think some folks can find a similar sense through spirituality.
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