Talking isn’t worth much, if no one listens. It’s like writing stories that no one ever reads. Like drawing pictures no one ever sees. Like being forgotten before you even existed. But it’s so easy they say. So easy to change.
If you write stories no one ever reads are you actually a writer or is it just make believe? A dream that keeps you hopeful that someday something might finally, actually change – and miserable all the same because it never does. It’s you they say, it’s always you. You need to change. You need to be brave. You need to be…whatever it is you are not.
So, you learn to smile and learn to nod and keep writing in secret. Because secrets are all there is, isn’t it? Writing let’s you imagine that there might be a better world. A world where something happens, where something changes. Because all those great stories talk about ordinary people who somehow became extraordinary by doing something new, meeting something new…becoming something new. New and shiny, bright and beautiful. If only…
Talking about all your dreams just makes them more real. It makes it real enough for others to haunt you with. Taunt you with what you didn’t accomplish. Remind you of what still haven’t managed to do. If only they would not talk, but listen. If only the would care. But real people rarely ever care about anything beyond their own problems, and that’s fair isn’t it? All you ever do is whine about all the things you cannot do.
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard