Manifesto: Why I Write
As a writer my intention is both simple and sacred: I want to inspire others with the magic of art. It is this gift of illuminating and reconstructing reality that uplifted me at an early age from the mundane constrictions of bourgeois society. That conventional, materialistic world and worldview conspires ever more dangerously to deceptions and illusions, to our public and private peril, and I must act to rebalance such crimes with my own convictions and skills, with the vision that the plant of our creative potential will fully flower.
As a writer I am committed to share my understanding of humanity and the universe, my appreciation for our common privilege in sharing the energy and unity of this dance of life. I endeavor to help us apprehend truth through the dialectic lens of language, even given that the truth may only be glimpsed through the spaces between the words, or in the patterning of words against silence, just as music creates the same figure/ground dynamic of vibration.
The music and style of language becomes key, because it is not just a dry rational understanding that I am attempting to convey, but a visceral joy in the creative act, a transmission of energy and perception and insight and celebration, which the reader can vicariously ride. Language at its best can sing like more overt forms of music that move us to dance along with that rhythm, that flow, that joy, that impetus, in the shared space where this life force redeems all the evil and illusion and obstruction and obfuscation, all the limitation and separation in the world. This inner music allows us to know and feel that we and our all-embracing, all-nourishing life force will prevail, not those divisive and contracting forces of denial.
My writing does not confine itself to genre molds or market niches. In that respect it is uncommercial; yet it strives for a universality beyond the confines of market segments. The works of fiction embrace themes of real importance: truth, justice, freedom, meaningful connection, outer and inner choice, desire and acceptance, multiple interwoven variations and timelines of identity, relationship and fate. The nonfiction tackles the overriding theme of humanity-and-nature, painting a path through the shifting shades of truth in the moment, fueled by stylistics of improvisational rhythm.
Above all in an age of darkness, of chaos and deception on a grand scale, of manufactured terror and plagues, of concocted wars and economic collapse, it is necessary to assert a humane alternative, a celebration of life posed to overwrite the crimes against humanity and nature. Writing in such a vein manifests original creative energy from source, to model values and flavors of harmonious community.
As a writer I am also a fellow human, a microcosm of the battlefield where too often distraction and disempowerment hold sway. Still I must have the courage to create and publish free of egoistic agenda and stifling doubts, serving not myself but my commitment to these overriding motives, this fundamental vision of a new world manifest in a positive vibration. In the creative work the conflictual side of life is not shunned but rather portrayed and worked through, modelling resolution and reconciliation, transcendence and integration, realization of a larger unity.
As a writer I must insist on my own integrity and the importance of the vision, maintaining motivation in the face of rejection, indifference, pop trends, a consumer culture careening away. I must honor that integrity with appropriate commitment to creative time and space amid the myriad distractions of life. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all comes from my own competing priorities, my desires to create a healthy, harmonious and loving lifestyle. Balance is key, as life itself is a genuine art. Yet, as a writer, I must honor at the core that venerable bottom line, “Art redeems life.”
> Manifesto part 2: Writing on the Edge
>> Manifest part 3: A Litany of Subversion
