A little about me. Or more directly, the writing side of me. I see writing as an interaction, an interaction between words, an interaction between ideas, and an interaction between people.
I remember when my best friend and I were in spelling bees and book writing competitions in every grade in school. She’d always land first place, and I would come in second. Every now and again it occurred to me that winning first place would be nice, but never at the expense of the joy I got from sharing a creative activity with a friend.
Now I am settled happily into a writing group of three individuals. We meet once a week, every week. One of us has a masters in creative writing. One of us has a degree in music performance. One of us works as a copywriter. One of us works as a crepe slinger. One of us is the main caregiver in the family. One of us has too many plants. We all love writing.
More often than writing, we are talking. We share about our experiences, our processes, our reflections, our dreams, our fears, our imaginations, and our ideas. We feed off of each other in a way that results in more than what we started with. We are writers. Each in our own way.
Writing is interactive. In my opinion, language was designed for communication. The art of it spans from plain to flowery, casual to professional, and origination to invention. Words are collaborative, even amongst themselves, built upon one another.
I am a writer. I have been since “Hooked on Phonics”, I suppose. My search history is a rabbit hole of etymology and translations. I will prefix, suffix, and root myself into the grave. When I do, I want a tree planted on top and please leave out the formaldehyde. I’d like to decompose. Let the earthworms make dirt of me. With all the coffee I drink, my musk must already be akin to the dark fruit of a cocoa bean. I imagine I’ll dissolve into the aroma of the earth, relaxing into my last resting place. I’d like to be dirt someday, breaking down into the basic building blocks of life. Become nothing and everything. As I always was. As I am. I am a writer.
I am fascinated by words. One of my inspirations was shared with me through a friend, a quote he found in Tom Robbin’s novel “Still Life with Woodpecker”:
“There are only two mantras, yum and yuck, mine is yum.”
Yum. If words do not nourish my mind, I spit them out. I will keep reading and writing. I want yum. I want words. Perhaps I am the last believer now…*
*reference to “Say More, Speak Like Rain” by Arne Ruste