Coming Together Through Books and Art
Coming Together Over Art Instead of Coming Apart
In eighth grade, I saw a black and white picture of a child in Germany, standing on the broken, ragged pile of rock left by a bombed-out building during World War II.
I don’t know who he was or his ethnicity. It didn’t matter. He was alone in the rubble, hurting just the same. I could see it in the expression on his face.
I’ll never forget that photograph.
Over the years I’ve thought about it a lot and it has inspired compassion and provoked a desire for connection, understanding, and peace.
In a world where right answers can be so complicated and convoluted and people—most just like you and me—feel so powerless and worried, the one thing that is clear, is that compassion is essential to our very survival.
We don’t have to pick a side or understand everything about the world to be compassionate. We can think differently, too, and still be compassionate.
And from compassion sometimes understanding can grow.
Multiple Voices in Art
Is art the great connector? In galleries and theaters and through books and songs, art opens our minds, brings people together, and makes us think and feel. It inspires dialogue and gets people talking, not just about the work, but about the artist and the ideas and concerns behind it.
Authors and artists are activists in this way. Through their work they bring out important ideas, exchanging views and perspectives, inspiring conversation and debate often coalescing in some unified effort outside the studio to make things better.
As long as we listen to each other. Stop the shouting, start the dialogue. Stop the banning and start the conversation.
Writing, painting, music, photography, films, dance—art— is a gentle way in to those hard conversations.
The Antidote to Writer’s Envy
Come on, admit it. We’ve all felt the prickling heat of envy—writer’s envy. The feeling that shows up when your buddy finds an agent or a writer you started with breaks the bestseller list, gets a big-money content client, or quits their day job to write full time.
Writer’s envy is real because well, writers are people too and people get jealous. We want this writing thing so bad that when others reach a level we aspire to, it can be hard to sit with.
But, that envy can eat us up—or we can use it.
Envy is Understandable
Feeling envy is understandable but I’m most interested in what you do with it. And that’s what we talk about in this week’s episode of Simply Write w/Polly.
When it comes to dealing with Wirter’s Envy, here are a few things to keep in mind
Celebrate the success of others. Not only is it the right thing to support other writers but their success is a reminder that it’s possible for you too.
Reassess your goals. I’ve felt envy when others sign a big deal or win a contest—even though I never entered and have no interest in that kind of work. How crazy is that?
Instead, take a look at your goals and make sure your efforts are in alignment with what you want. If they aren’t, reset your goals and align your efforts to accomplish those. It’s OK to change your mind—and the nature of your work—but don’t burden yourself with envy over outcomes from work you don’t want to do.
Get to work. Action is the antidote to envy. Use those big feelings to motivate you and get to work.
What’s in the Desk?
On the Simp;y Write w/Polly podcast, we talk about writing craft and crafting a writer’s life, and guest authors share their favorite pens, trinkets, and the tools they like to have around them when they write, in a segment called What’s in the Desk.
So, what’s in my desk today?
Pick Your Weapon sticker from LunaIsle Etsy shop. I’ve got it stuck on the cover of my little traveler’s notebook and it makes me happy.
What’s in your desk—or on your desk? What do you like to have around when you write? Drop me a comment or note or shoot me a pic and I will include it in an upcoming newsletter.
If you want to end the war, then instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers.
—Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate
Now, sit down and Simply Write.
-p
