New Year’s Virtue

Nick Wignall wrote about making a New Year’s Virtue instead of a Resolution: https://nickwignall.com/new-years-virtue/

“Paradoxically, the best way to reach a goal is to forget about the goal itself and focus on the process—the small, concrete steps that, if taken often enough, will inevitably get you there. Journey over destination. Process over outcome. Virtue over goal.”

Danielle Koiwski wrote about the virtue of finishing what we start as writers: https://medium.com/writers-by-night/the-most-important-skill-that-a-writer-can-develop-a549d4122d2f

This quote struck me: “Finishing a work of art is an intentional choice on the part of the artist that gives the work a life independent of its creator.”

“Fundamentally, art is a conversation. That means that art doesn’t really come into its own until it has an audience — until a novel has a reader, until a painting has a viewer, or until a song has a listener. Audiences bring their own experiences to the art and add to the layers of meaning that the artist has infused into it. Through sharing, the art becomes more complex and meaningful.”

They reminded me of a blog post I wrote in March 2018:

Nine years ago (a veritable dinosaur’s age in digital terms) Robert McCrum wrote about the growing re connection between writers and readers. He wrote about Arthur Conan Doyle responding to his readers, then how novelists rose to the status of ‘artist’ and secluded themselves away from their audience.  Finally, Mr. McCrum prophesied the growing attachment between writers and readers in the digital age.

In 2014  Carole Jelen wrote a practical ‘how to’ blog post about why authors need to talk with their readers. In the last 4 years readers and writers have become more and more heart bound, collaborators in a new kind of community to the benefit of more than just themselves.

In Leoshine has company I wrote about Public words and Private Words and the connection between writer and reader.  Let’s stop a moment and wonder at what words do between us!  

My heart dreams up a story of a man who claims responsibility for an unborn child.  What did you dream up as you read that?  Do you know men in your life who would do that?  Do you wonder whether he’ll do a paternity test?

Do you have an unborn child in your life at this moment?  My heart trembles in excited expectation with you.

Have there been unborn children who never made it to full term?  My heart aches for you.

Wow! Did you see that?  We didn’t get to the part about the mother being a drug addict and requiring restraint so that her baby could have half a chance of normal  (not chemically addled) development.  Our hearts are intertwined just by thinking of a man (father or not) who has the heart to reach out to someone vulnerable (mother and child).

If I want to be the best writer I can be, I need to imagine as many meanings to my words as possible.  You, my readers, are invited into a world that you yourselves are creating from your background and experiences, personality and proclivities. We touch hearts. Community is built, and the world is turned upside down.

What virtue are we going to highlight for 2020? How are we going to be, I mean really BE; accentuate the Being part of our species nomenclature instead of trying to be Human Doings?

I haven’t answered this question for myself yet! What are your thoughts?