On Writing and Being...
An acting professor I know and studied with defined acting as the art of living truthfully under the imaginary circumstances of the play. This thought seems simple enough, but it is extremely difficult in practice. Yet, truth in the context of a performance can be achieved. Writers, like actors, must also strive to live truthfully, but writers live under the imaginary circumstances of the essay, story, poem, play, or project they are creating. The best acting and the best writing involve truth -- and the fusion of self and word. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a great 19th-century poet, wrote, "Words and deeds are quite different modes of the divine energy. Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words," echoing the notion that writing is not separate from humanity.
The English language is difficult and graceful, full of beauty and subtlety, and capable of utter cruelty and destruction; it is one of many tools we use to create our unique vision of the world. Communication involves more than just the written and the spoken word, however. Music, the media, pop culture, the arts, science, and other aspects of our world also communicate spiritual, cultural, political, and personal ideologies. My interests have always been rooted in exploring, comparing, discussing, and analyzing the intersections between myself and these ideologies. I am fascinated by intersections.
I suppose if you asked me, I would have to tell you that I do not believe in "truth" with a capital "T"; however, that does not mean I do not believe in the search for meaning. I mentioned that the best writing involves truth and the fusion of self and word, but for me the words "truth", "self", and "word" are dynamic and everchanging. The truth of a 15 year old is not the same truth of a woman nearing 40, yet, both are real and meaningful. If we can honor this notion, we honor a part of ourselves that has evolved over hundreds of years, has traveled many miles, and that will allow us to continue to express ourselves into this new century.