On Bravery Part 2

If only being brave was an internal thing. If the only obstacle to overcome was the one within. Of course, the internal struggle is the only one that is truly legitimate, it is not the only obstacle we have. The biggest obstacles are often the ones that we do not need to overcome. The biggest obstacles we have are the ones that ultimately do not matter. We can define these obstacles as those of society. And society whether defined as the overall structure of our families, our communities or our group as a whole, should not have any baring on our decisions to become writers or artists.

I know there are many families and many cultures out there that value the arts. There are many families and cultures that place the arts well above everything else. This is not our society in general here in modern America. This is not the family that I came from. My family, very much like the society in which we live held the highest value on money and material things. My family could easily gauge success on the size of the house over the accomplishments in a published short story. I do not mean to suggest that a person cannot have both, the big house and the published short story. I also do not mean to say that my family ever mistreated me as a writer. I was never encouraged to be a writer. I was blessed to have not been encouraged to do anything. I was also never discouraged from doing anything either.

There have been small digs over the years that were more mean spirited than mere banter. The small digs about the amount of pay received from various projects. The amount of education I've been fortunate enough to acquire and the fact that I haven't “used” my education for a “real” job. When I say mean spirited, I mean that I have always sensed the judgment or sarcasm in it. On occasion I have felt these comments to be very hurtful. However, I have been able to do all that I set out in life to do and I have that restful feeling that I did the right thing.

But, what if I felt like this was not the case? I mean, what if I was unable to continue with my path in the face adversity or even derogatory comments? What if my self-possession was much less strong and I did not have the courage, or the bravery to continue on? It's a horrifying thought. Unfortunately, I know what can happen to a person who does not follow his path. I know this because I once strayed from my path to pursue all the things in life I was told I should pursue. And although the experience was no terrible one, I tried to live like everyone else and found it disagreeable.

I believe the writer, the artist must always hold onto personal bravery. There are so many factors working against these sorts of professions and it ranges from what your parents want you to do to how much someone is willing to respect you for your decision. When it comes to the very nature of being a writer, the decision belongs with no one else outside of that writer. It cannot be the decision the family makes, the decision that any institution makes. Fuck them, I say.

The bravest one of us will not be disturbed by what others say. The bravest one of us will not stop writing because someone says “you'll starve,” “you can't be a writer” or “what gives you the right to sit around and think all day?” The bravest one of us will find a way to continue with his art. The bravest one of us will know that the smallest of victories are the ends of the largest battles. When one has written a great short story comes the time to find a publisher. When submitting the story there will be at least ten rejections before an acceptance. There may not be a rejection, and there may never be an acceptance. But what there needs to be is the bravery to face all that comes down the path. There are the naysayers. There are the editor's who send the rejection. There is the void in which our work goes and nothing comes back. There is the vacuum, the cavern, the dark. Oh, the dark.

In this way, all those external factors can be deadly. The best way to combat it, of course, go out into the world and embrace the chosen path and face all adversity with bravery. Work, work and work some more. There may be reasons to stop, there may be reasons to quit, but they do not come from those external factors which may be noisy. And as noisy as they be, they cannot be strong enough to stop you from writing.