If your path is difficult but you
love what you do, if it has you hanging on by your fingernails one day, and
floating on a cloud the next, sometimes
it just makes sense to love the dog that bites you. I recently used that
line as a comment on Averil Dean’s blog. It got me to thinking.
As a writer who has achieved a
modicum of success I’ve been bitten by rejection so many times that any weaker
person, one less apt to deal with a reddened turned-the-other-cheek, would
have caged that animal or put it to rest. But I love being a writer; I cannot
imagine doing anything else. It feeds my mind and inebriates my soul. It also
fuels ‘the dream’.
I used to think everybody dreams,
everybody wants more, everybody longs for some sort of legacy; I was wrong. I
get that generalizations are foolish, and assumptions suck, but I genuinely pity,
and in a way I envy, those who are content with their station in life. Not-wanting...yes
a part of me is jealous of the calmness, because if you are not-wanting then
you are not open to the angst of not-getting.
But there is duplicity to
calmness; it means you are either at peace, never even thought or dared to want
something besides a pedestrian life or you have given up.
So which is it, are you calm or are
you on alert for the next bite?
Because I want to see at least one comment I'll go first.
ReplyDeleteWuff...I'm on alert. As always I'm waiting for an editor to get back to me. She liked what I wrote, a lot, so my fingernails are dug into her ledge. I'm hoping she doesn't slam the window.
Well, I too am on alert because I do not want to lead a pedestrian life. I have had goals and circumstances have not allowed me to reach it. Hoping I don't get bit in the ars but get myself motivated to take a big bite out of life!
ReplyDeleteSharpen your teeth Babe, because I know 'life' is first on your recipe list.
DeleteThanks sista.
ReplyDeleteI always have some goal I'm working toward, but my regular job as a teacher is much as you describe. One day goes great, I feel like I've made a huge difference and the next is a bust, chaos and I'm the worst teacher ever. Hanging by my fingernails is just another day in the classroom for me.
ReplyDeleteBut my dear Jennine, you are making a difference in the lives of people who will eventually make a difference in the lives of others, and so it goes, on and on. Fingernails are pretty strong; they always leave an imprint.
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