On Needing to Write & What Is Owed

So there’s needing to write and then there’s needing to write.

I need to write because it is part of my life’s work, part of my expression of being here, and hopefully something useful comes of that. I’m fortunate enough to have a myriad of skills and can make my living any number of ways, of which professional writing, frankly, is neither the easiest nor most rewarding. So that allows me to relax a little and not have to compete with other writers in the hunger games of traditional publishing.

Because then there are writers who need to write because that’s their shot at a decent life. It’s their main distinguishable skill and their primary source of money. They can’t really do anything else and have a shot at a quality standard of living. But this group of writers is rarely heard from and almost never talked about.

Instead you’re hearing from me and folks who are like me (or even better off), whose ‘dream’ it is to be paid for our art so we can, I dunno, fuck off to an island somewhere and rely on the strength of USD royalties to live like a queen in perennially ‘Gram-worthy surroundings.

Despite how that last bit might sound, I’m not interested in shaming anyone. It’s fine by me if people want to make art and get paid for it. I hope they do both, truly. But there’s this attitude I find creeping into my thoughts at any given moment that we are owed something. So let’s look at that.

I’m an American Gen Xer, so it was made perfectly crystal fucking clear to me that I’m not owed shit, not entitled to shit, and don’t ask. Get a fucking job, work till you die, and shut up about it. Everyone born after me, unsurprisingly, has been seen by the generations older than mine (and sadly some within) as spoiled babies who can’t do shit and only want to take. That’s clearly not true, but it’s a real story, a narrative that is applied particularly harshly to Millennials, who in my estimation have proven to be a generation of optimistic and creative people.

Is there durability in generational identity? Probably not, but my point is that there is this grand narrative that you aren’t owed shit, so don’t ask. It seems painfully apparent that this isn’t true, that it’s a line perpetuated by the Haves to keep down the Havenots.

“So what are we owed, T? Get to that part!” you say.

Okay, You, I will!

What we’re owed is kindness, love, acceptance, and support. How do I know this? It’s how sane people treat children, people with disabilities, elders, and the poor. It’s how domesticated animals (and even some wild animals) who are not abused behave. It’s the focus of almost every religion since the origin of religions, and is nearly universally seen as the summit of goodness.

The trouble is, we owe it, too.

So say you owe someone $100, but you are owed $100. Which you focus on more is going to tell you a lot about both your station in society and your attitude toward this situation we call life.

Anyway, all I’m getting at there is often the folks who demand their fair share get it and usually take more, whereas others either forfeit their share or spread what they have out with others. Which will you be? Which are you?

Xoxo,

T

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