To Write Or Not To Write

Sometimes you write a desperate note to purge some darkness from within. And then you read it and the words impress you and give you some hope that you might be still alive and capable to produce beauty, even if it is a sad beauty.

You might want to skip the rest of this post, sure you will find no joy in it, no cheering up. You might find something right, usually unspoken, the things that people might call wisdom. No promises though. But you might.

Usually, people keep apologizing when they're being gloomy and sad. Maybe because we are expected to be a fun company, a nice one. Even when we're writing we're expected to make the reader feel good. But sometimes, or maybe all the times, when you scratch a person, strip him from all his jewelry and masks, you'll find darkness, emptiness, and loneliness. Nothing bright can ever survive that deep inside.

Should we stop writing when we're sad? That would spare the readers our least entertaining thoughts and feelings, but it would make us strangers to them. If they don't know our fears, then they don't know us. And if no one knows us, then we're doomed for eternal loneliness. Most of our words and letters will be unwritten when we die if we try to hide that part of ours. And what's left would be visibly fake, plainly fanciful, so perfectly ugly.

Until that day, we have a choice. To write or not to write. It doesn't matter to whom we write, or whether someone will ever appreciate it. We are alive as long as we write. And I say we should write as long as we exist.

Djerba, Tunisia, 04 Feb 2018