Nothing New

About two years ago I created a short compilation of my video interviews called, “The Writing Spirit.” I loved the piece because I felt it spoke so clearly to the intersection of writing/creativity and human beings’ inherent spirituality. This intersection is the starting point for Author, this column, Author2Author, and really all my work for the last six years. It has remained one of my most popular videos, and the comments, with one notable exception, have been unanimously positive. That one exception was the very first comment, posted only hours after I uploaded The Writing Spirit to YouTube. The anonymous viewer posted: “I call bullshit. This has all been said before.”

He (it just felt like a he) was right, of course. It had all been said before. Jesus had said it, and Buddha had said it, and Beethoven had said it, and John Lennon and said it, and now Byron Katie and Abraham-Hicks and Eckharte Tolle and Anne Lamott and many, many others are all saying it and saying it and saying it. Everyone is saying the same thing, only slightly differently.

Everyone is saying it because everyone needs to hear it, and everyone is saying it differently because not every teacher can speak to every student. The world fits together in many places and at many angles. So too with your stories. It is said, depending on whom you ask, that there are only 7, or 5, or 3 stories to be told. The number is irrelevant. When the old stories pass through the original you they come out new.

I admit I was a little miffed that my lovely video was met so rudely by the grumpy world, and I promptly deleted the comment. Maybe I should have left it. It is good to remember that none of what we learn here is actually new. It is good to remember that what we are forever discovering what has always existed, and we are continually relieved to find it is still there.

Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion. "A book to keep nearby whenever your writer's spirit needs feeding." Deb Caletti.

Remember to catch Bill every Tuesday at 2:00 PM PST/5:00 EST on his live Blogtalk Radio program Author2Author! You can find Bill at: williamkenower.com