Fly Away, Words
A writer does not determine the worth of his words. Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? A writer’s job is to write and refine the words, then release them into the world.
It is the readers who determine the worth of those words and, even as it happens with artists, that worth might not be realized in his lifetime.
Transient worth is easily achieved. Books come and go on the best seller list. Words can become popular, but that doesn’t make them enduring. Words can earn you money, but that doesn’t make them enduring. Words can earn you criticism, disagreement, and trouble, or they can earn you praise, acclaim, and status. But that doesn’t mean they will survive beyond the now of their release.
We are not all born a Shakespeare, with a body of work that endures through the ages, and that’s okay. As long as I am putting my best words out there, I can struggle with the process of letting them go…and trust that they will find the life they should have. Some words are well received. Some fall on deaf ears. Whatever the result or their reception, I have to write them, give them life, and let them go. I am a writer. That’s what we do.
If you write what is true, what comes from your inner self, letting go is fraught with emotion, but releasing your words releases something of you out into the world. Those words have a better chance to endure through changing values and changing times because they are written closest to the core of what it means to be human. I think it is that very sense of identification…of trueness to humanity…that gives words a long life.
It takes confidence and trust to release our words to the world’s judgment while we move on to new words. They might never speak, they might be agreed or disagreed with. They might even be popular. They will always be a moment, a mood, or a thought, frozen into written language and shared. Whatever happens to them, they have flown beyond you. But you have done your job.
As much as I would love my words to be popular, I work both to make them enduring and to learn to let them go. What else can I do? Words are my colors, brushes, and canvas. I’ll write for the public, for my friends and family, or just for myself, but I’ll work to give good and better–even best–words to the world. They will live or they won’t. They will endure beyond my lifetime or they won’t.
But I’ll have done my part.
so well said. we do our part, leave the rest to…
well, to the eyes of others, their hearts too…
Relevant thoughts BJ. Beautifully written and obviously heartfelt.
A timely reminder to me to not hold my writing too tightly but to open my heart and let them fly.
Wouldn’t be so bad if it was just words, but those words are our heart and soul out there, and when they go a-glimmering, it hurts. As you so rightly say, though, all we as writers can do is say them. The rest is none of our business.
Love & Peace (and people reading our darn words!),
Tom