Knowing Where to Look

I shouldn’t read the news, but I do. I harbor some unrealized hope it will cheer me up, despite decades of daily evidence to the contrary. Particularly very recently, what with pandemics and now End of Days forest fires turning the sky a Hellscape orange, it’s easy to slip into a hole of hopelessness if only to seek some shelter there.

That’s where I went briefly the other morning. I knew where I was because I’d been there many times before, though for very different reasons. Back before quarantines and record high temperatures, rejection letters were the bad news of the day. Sometimes they came as often as my paper. A few of those in a row and there I’d be in the pit, for I could think of nowhere else to go.

Here’s the thing about The Pit: there’s nothing there. Nothing. No ideas or next thing to do because in the pit nothing you do comes to anything. There are no friends either because friends require sharing and you have nothing to give and there’s nothing anyone can give you. There’s nothing to be interested in or care about. There’s just nothing. And there you are with it.

As I said, my stay in the pit was brief. I may be a slow learner, but I learn just the same, and after enough time down in the dark you eventually accept there is only one way out. You can’t look for what you want in rejection or acceptance letters, and you can’t look for what you want in the news either. There’s nothing out there. The only place I know where to find it is where I find the stories I want to tell, a place only I can see and hear. I can, however, do my best to share what I find, and maybe in the sharing remind someone else where to look when they’re lost.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com