Feels like LA

Caroline's question

Caroline: John, how do we write for the times without being swallowed up by them?

Me: Gosh that’s a good question, Caroline. It’s a fight, isn’t it, to not let yourself be swallowed up by “the times”? It can leave you paralyzed, at least it can me. It’s not that I can’t write, like I’m stuck or something, but rather why would I even bother to write, why would anyone, for what are words when the darkness is so deep? (grief that sounds dramatic). True confession—it usually is as the enormity of the world’s problems somehow sadly lead me to the waters of self-pity. Kook-weird, but true.

It’s usually then my wife, who knows me well, says, “J, get your head out,” or one of my true blue friends says, “Dude, have a Snickers, you’re not yourself,” both variations on just what I need to jolt me to my senses so I do what it is I know by now I need to do: Get on with it. Let it flow. Don’t haggle, just get it down. Write your feelings out about whatever it is you’re feeling and don’t worry about editing or if you’re not an expert or what’s momma gonna think? Get on with it.