I have had many of epiphanies. So when I say “The” epiphany, I mean to single this one out as something particularly magnificent. Epiphanies seem to come in a sequence, each one unlocking new possibilities, but also seemingly never ending, no resting place, always moving.
Yet finally, now, a break away from orbit new knowing!
For, of all the arts I practice, only one feels like my duty.
I do not know if I should explain this concept: Duty. If you get it, you get it. If you do not, I bet you think you do, so who am I to move your mind?
It is simple. Fathers and mothers of mewling brats understand. Shit job holders understand. I think you can easily imagine many examples like that, not even fun, even awful, but done, and done for duty. It is real basic.
So it seems I have this duty to tell your story.
Your story
“Your story” being, of course, not my story.
Jack Kerouac ended his life thinking he was a mere voyeur, but I know better; you see, I could not tell your story without also my story, for my story met your story, and then it was our story! I guess he did not see that he was influencing outcomes? He was, I hear, charismatic as fuck.
So, though I delight in haring and relaying the tales of others — much new work follows! — I am also I, and I learn, now, late in life, that others like to hear about mt travels. I have learned that my audience sizes are not measured by the comments or likes or anything visible like those on my blog or Facebook or whatever. i learned I am being watched, and to those people and for those people I must keep telling the story, and so it is that of all my arts, it is writing that emerges as the one in MUST do.
For such a butterfly as myself, flitting from flower to flower, blown by the wind to “home,” this is big news. It orients me.
Beautifully, of all the arts, it is the one that requires the least mass. Indeed, if we understand writing as a subset of storytelling, observation, memory, and voice alone are enough to practice that art.
And, unlike the grueling examples I gave before, this duty is a joy. It is my calling.
I do know people want videos, and they are right to want that! And I want to make them, but for this moment, simpler craft more direct written especially for those who knew me when.
Most beloved, you.