Everyday Canvas

When Writing Becomes a Calling

Prompt: “Your Calling Is More Powerful Than Your Resume,” says TAMA J. KIEVES in the January 12, 2018, issue of Signature. In what ways can you imagine your writing to be more powerful than your resume?

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My resume is very close to my writing; actually, it does involve writing and a lot of it since it has been research work on languages and literature, but the irresistible obsession of writing poetry and fiction came to me much later in life. Earlier, that was something I did for myself on the side for the fun of it, and if someone published a thing or two, I didn’t keep records of it. I didn’t feel it was something I could depend on for life and didn’t need to because I loved my work immensely.

On the other hand, it doesn’t matter what I did in the past. It matters what I do now, as the desire to write has always been in my blood. Writing, any kind of it, is important because through it, we interact with the world and more so, we may see what is there within ourselves.

Through these interactions, writers--we average, normal people--share our truths in a pleasing, entertaining way, hoping something in them will signal the concern or love we feel for the humankind. Stories and poems, as imagined as they are, show the fundamental truths of existence. Through those dark or light truths and the love that flows from our pens or keyboards, we hope to make the world a better place or at least change a tiny part of it; although, the word hope is the key here.

In short, writing matters because it has the power of hope to change the world for good.