MY LIFE IS A WRITING LIFE [W, 6-5-24]

BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of an Old Man—MY LIFE IS A WRITING LIFE [W, 6-5-24]

 

In yesterday’s column, I wrote of the importance of living in one’s own story. But as I applied that to myself, I made a rather significant mistake. I interpreted living in your own life to mean that you don’t share that story of your life with others. But my story, as it turns out, is sharing the story. My own life, in which I must live, is a writing life.

The difference is not in writing or not writing. It is in the audience. If I live in my own life, I write for myself. If I live in the world—the world of church and society—I need to write for others.

The difference is whether you tell the story with others in mind, or only for yourself. If others are going to hear or read, you must think about their ears and eyes, not only your own. Will this communicate? Is it worth the time of someone else? Can they get inside the story?

That puts on the teller… not a burden. Saying it’s a burden would be an insult to the reader. No, it puts on the writer a responsibility. Can the reader get any benefit from this?

When I wrote about living in one’s own story, I assumed that meant living in my own head, not living in writing. There was an obvious tell, which I totally overlooked. I was WRITING about how I should not write anymore, in order to live my own life. Clearly, to some of my readers, but not yet to me: MY own life, in which I need to live, is a WRITING life.

Okay, I have not explained this well and I’ve mixed CAPS and underlining. I am saying simply that I have to write, but that I am not going to care about whether it does anything for you. Oh, wait, I guess that is really it: I have to write, but I’m so old I don’t have to care if anybody else gets any good out of it.

I think “that idea will preach,” as preachers always say, even though they are usually wrong.

I was never a propositional preacher, anyway, but a prepositional preacher. I think only in stories. As soon as a thought arises, I begin to see it in story form. And those stories will probably get posted here. And if you get nothing from them, or if you’ve heard it all before, well, remember they are just the irrelevant musings of an old man. And you were warned.

So, okay. I’m going to do the exact opposite of not writing. I’m going to post something every day. [Unless I don’t.]

John Robert McFarland

I probably should not use the title Christ In Winter anymore, since its assumption is that the writer cares about the readers. In fact, the real title now is Beyond Winter, which means the writer is an old man and beyond caring. But I don’t know how to change the CIW title up above, and if anyone looks for this column online, they’ll probably search for CIW, so…