**Storyline

You see, after a while, you get tired of telling 
the same old story again, the sad one, where you 
are the interstitial animal living between grains 
of ancient sand, separated from both
land and sea, by some careless hand that said 
you were made to be lonely. And while I know 
being a writer is solitary (how else will we ever 
get these so-many-words out of our salty-sweet 
minds?) I do not think anyone was made to be alone. 
When we are, at least for too long, the words 
build up like bulwarks, shutting out waves 
that might help to draw us in to a beautiful
and bountiful collective, or wind that might sweep 
us into a lifegiving dune. Look, I know we want people 

to read our words, to understand us, to hear us, 
to give us a value like CEOs and investment bankers 
and lawyers and doctors are graciously bestowed—
because if nothing else, have we not at least had to study 
life itself? Why doesn’t that earn us a degree and a living?  
And so we keep telling that horrible tale, the one 
where the artists cut off their ears just to stop the noise 
from overcoming them, or the one with the writer who swallowed 
a bullet, pulling the trigger on anything more they might 
have ever written. So what I am trying to say is, we need to tell 
a different story now, one that has a better ending. One in which 

we have built our own plotlines, and every character 
works against the antagonist. And it doesn’t matter 
who the villain is—lord knows, we have too many choices 
there. The point is, the theme is, the thesis even a stupid critic 
will be able to deconstruct is, we as protagonists, we are rewriting 
the denouement, the way the book turns out. And if anyone 
wants to buy the movie rights, if somehow we are discovered, 
our answer will always be, my life is not on auction, 
and you can’t get me at a discount. You can’t plaster 
my words or my face or my name anywhere without 
my consent. And when you pay me, you will pay 
the ones who made my story possible. Every. Single. 
One. Of. Us. Do you see, now, how there will be 
justice? Do you see how we change the world?  

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, copyright March 14, 2024, all rights reserved 

**If you are in crisis or think you might be, PLEASE call or text 988. Or chat at 988lifeline.org.