The Rock ‘n Roll of Writing
A few months into the blogging-business, I think it’s time to take a step back and overlook my process as a “blogger”.
While this blog was initially meant to write the story of “Vintage”, a trend that has been coloring our society for quite some time now. It soon turned out to be something quite different. As my eager pen started spilling its inky guts on my digital paper, the words that flew out of it were not necessarily related to “Vintage”, but had a much broader outlook. They didn’t watch one trend, but observed society in its whole. Better yet, they are personal observations on our world, our lives and most of all, ourselves.
I’m one of those people who likes to hold a mirror to herself and society, not because I’m a self-claimed superstar with obvious self-exhibition tendencies, but in order to see things from a different point of view; to realize that, when taking a step back, everything can seem so much different and suddenly make sense. Being quite the reflective character I do ask myself a lot of questions and I’m often “frustrated” when I don’t (immediately) find answers. And that moment of frustration and despair, that’s where writing comes in to safe the day!
Maybe the feeling is familiar to you. The moment when you reach for your pen or you take a seat behind your computer and you get into just the right position to start writing, any kind of writing. You take time to think and wonder, to question and to look for answers. That moment of standing still, of slowing down, might lie in a brief second, right afterwards words might flow out of you like an old volcano rediscovering its power, but you did stop for a moment and you did reflect.
I find writing one of the most beautiful things in this life. It embodies such an extraordinary power. The power to stop and stand still in the rat race that is our life. The power to question and wonder without the need to find answers. The power to be free, to feel free. Every man who has ever dipped his feather in ink to caress a piece of parchment with his words, who has traced his Parker over paper, who has ever felt the need to color a blank Word page; every man, throughout history, over thousands of years, who has ever written, knows what I’m talking about.
The freedom of writing lies in its wild soul. It might not seem like it, but writing is hardcore Rock ‘n Roll! It’s expressing your personality, it’s opening the doors of your inner self, it’s making a statement. It’s finding yourself in a different world, YOUR world. Where you don’t have to respond to anyone except yourself. Where you are free of prejudice, of schemes of whatever holds you back sometimes. It’s drifting away on a fantastic cloud to a place where imagination takes over and nothing necessarily has to be real or visible or true. It’s taking a step back to relive your childhood, it’s looking forward to fantasize about the future. That paper, that pen and those words of yours they’re rid of all that characterizes this earthly life: free of time, of space, of reality and full of you!
Writing’s wild soul doesn’t scare emotions like our real world often does, no, it gives them a place to crawl out of the darkness their often kept in and shine like they deserve to. People are too often “wallflowers”. Too busy walking in line, doing as we’re supposed to, thinking about how to match in the scheme laid out for us. Well, writing gives us the opportunity to escape society’s prefabricated plan and to write one of our own.
A plan that brings healing to the wounds our world scars us with. A new, free scheme that’s often soothing, as well as shocking. That guides to tears or leads to ecstatic displays of happiness. That brings a message of hope or confronts us with painful facts. Words private or destined to be published. A reflection of one’s heart or the mirror to society. Whatever it is, whatever goal it has or, on the contrary, how random it might be, it always, always, always has meaning and always always always makes sense. A sense we search for when all seems senseless or a meaning we want to share when we discovered what is meaningful.
Writing can be as strong as it is fragile. Putting your heart on paper is not easy and it’s not always meant to be read. Its strength often lies in its secrecy. In the moment we feel the need to be alone with our thoughts and our notebook to reflect for a moment, to log off. In a society where everything is “shared” – from how we drink our coffee in the morning to how many sleeping pills we pop before finally finding the courage to sign out of our Facebook accounts at night – the fruit of our thoughts doesn’t always have to be read out loud in order for it to work its shaman-magic.
Unfortunately there are examples of writing damaging our world as well. History offers countless of those. Sometimes we see that, during time and through change, the writings that once were so radical, painful even, stop being offensive as years go by and society takes on different forms. We then look back and wonder what was ever so shocking. It only comes to show how writing is fruit and a powerful expression of its time and environment. Of course nothing should ever harm anyone, but even in its most radical form the Rock ‘n Roll essence of writing shines through: its audacity to say what one thinks. People who have the guts to make a statement, who are able to think differently and who are not scared to stand by what they believe in, I do admire their willpower and belief. Of course when a statement is intended to hurt, hate or discriminate anything or anyone, measures should be made and other statements should be uttered as a cure for what could sicken our world.
Our modern day, “social” society, provides a bigger, more accessible platform to the wild writing soul, or the part of it that wants to speak open and freely at least. It opens the prospective of a society filled with stories, wild by expression, full of statements and overcome by emotion. I found this virtual writing pad called “Blog” a good way to make my statements, to free my wild soul (or part of it), to spice up my life with some Rock ‘n Roll, to enjoy the rhythms of someone else’s rocking speaker box. A modern way to do what I love most: write and move, inspire and be moved and inspired in return. To give some sense, but above all find some sense. Because aren’t emotions all we look for in the end?
True story darling
excellent writing skills!
Delphine, You’re the best !