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.
Posted in Katherine's Coffeehouse
