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Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Passionate or the Obscure Life



Why is life so often not about what we want but what society expects? And what does this all have to do with either travel or writing?

Because writing is about life, about passion, about aching to get pen on paper and, really, about what few people in your life will understand. Writing is recording life's journey. And maybe all those emotions that call me to write are the reason why I'm sensitive about the mundane, the expected, and the necessary - drum roll please - the day job.

Today as I sat in my alter ego, my day job, in that boardroom, I watched the unanimated faces around the table and I realized that for all of us, this job, this meeting wasn't our dream. How did I know that? Because if it were, each of those faces, or a few, or even one, would have been animated. Instead, we looked, well not to be critical but night of the living dead under the glow of the flourescent lights, and although there was no mirror handy, I'm sure that included said writer.

Unfortunately we can't all live our passion. Some of us know what our dream is early on and some don't learn until much later in life, like Grandma Moses to name one of many. Some may never know and that is the saddest fact of all. But in the meantime, how do we allow ourselves to be herded to this place where our lives are dictated by the whims of others and our base nature is sanded and smoothed until it resembles nothing that we once saw in the mirror as a child? Maybe that's why I love writing stories, creating unique lives, emotion, purpose and determination when around me I see so much conformity.

Maybe I'm being overly bleak tonight. But are we heading into conformist obscurity? Get that bike helmet on and let me know what you think.


Once upon a time,

Ryshia

2 comments:

Teresa said...

Love the pic!!

Ryshia Kennie said...

That pic really was once upon a time.