Write a better world
I come from farm country. I grew up next to cows and pigs. I read paperback books that were curled at the edges. I watched Dukes of Hazard. I didn’t see beyond my rural route. I saw corn and soy. I saw debt and loss and bankruptcy. I saw anger.
Image Credit: Illinois Farm Bureau
That anger fueled me forward. It made me want to do better and be more: to help myself, to help my family, and to help my community. I worked hard, and I excelled at school. I did my homework. I read all the books. I asked for more.
It was never enough. The worlds I saw in Tolkien and LeGuin, the choices I made in those Choose Your Own Adventure novels, they were so much more than the world I lived in.
There was magic in those worlds. There was life. There was possibility.
And they brought to life that idea — that hope — that danced on the edge of my mind: that an awkward, poor, fat tomboy could make a difference. That I could wake something up inside of everyone else.
College gave me a five-dollar word for it: empathy. That was what I wanted. I wanted people to see each other, to love each other, and to know each other.
So I returned to the first place where I found darkness and wasn’t afraid. I returned to books.
And I started to write stories of my own.
Today, as we stand on the threshold of a world that is so uncertain, I challenge you to pick up your own pen. To write the world as you want to see it. To not be afraid.
Because maybe someone will read your words, and they’ll find a world that is beyond imagining, or a character who is so much like them. They’ll see the possibility in their own lives, or they’ll suddenly understand the hopes and dreams of someone else. And that’s what we need — to understand each other, to talk to each other, to know each other. To not be surprised by the polls, but to be surprised by what we find in one another.
Underneath the anger, there’s hurt, but there’s also hope. And that’s what we need. We need possibility. We need magic.
Go write more magic into the world.
[tweetthis]A better world – that’s what we need. To not be surprised by the polls, but surprised by what we find in each other.[/tweetthis]
Join me in writing a better world. Here’s where I’ll be this week:
- Writer’s Workshop tonight at West Linn Library, November 9, at 6:30PM (All Ages). Click here for more.
- The League of Exceptional Writers this Saturday at Powell’s Cedar Hills, November 12, at 2:00PM (Ages 8-18). Click here for more.
- Youth Fiction Author Event on Saturday at Eugene Barnes and Noble, November 12, at 7:00PM (All ages). Click here for more.
