Last week a dear friend posted a photo on my Facebook page of little girls doing ballet. Four of the ballerinas were lined up on the bar in first position with their future occupations written below: doctor, lawyer, chemist, teacher and the fifth was hanging on the bar from her knees and labeled writer.
It’s true. We writers are different from most people. We think outside the box with a global perspective and we are overly curious creatures. Or better yet we’re just plain nosey. My path began as a child of 11 years old writing novels on loose leaf paper, front and back in large, looped, cursive handwriting. I celebrated when my parents bought me an electric typewriter for Christmas at 16 years old. Most evenings I sat at my little desk typing away on a novel.
Every family member close to me knew I was working on a story from all of my questions. My daddy used to say my favorite word had to be ‘why.’ As a child I was absorbed in American history and every story had to do with hoop skirts, petticoats and dashing heroes on a ship. Only my closest friends volunteered to read my manuscripts and much to my chagrin, I must admit, they weren’t very good. They were practice.
It was later in life when I began to understand my brain functions better with letters and words and stresses over the compilation of numbers. It is my good opinion a calculator is one of the finest inventions man ever invented. Oh, I understand numbers are necessary in life but if I didn’t have to think about them I’d be much happier. When faced with a polynomial, I break out into a sweat. It’s not that I can’t do math, it’s just that it’s…hard and I’d rather not think about whether an answer to an equation is a negative or positive x.
Words are important. Words conquered nations, words build up and tear down people, places and things. Words set the sun and moon in the sky.
Writing is a big part of my life and it wasn’t until I began spending time with other writers I began to see there are others out there who think similarly. We all love justice, truth and great literature, have a great fondness for Superman, Spiderman and Star Wars. It was nice to find out recently we all have a writing project of some sort happening at home.
Whether or not we follow directions in ballet class, immerse ourselves in Tolstoy, or enjoy the latest Star Trek convention, we know we don’t fall into life’s stereo-typical categories. God made each of us totally unique and with different gifts. We are artists. Those of us who dig being an old fashioned scribe just do life a bit differently.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Hanging from your knees