Why Write?

Last year a friend I’ve known for twenty years asked why I wrote and published a certain piece. I think it was the one about the Cicadas, the bug-eyed bugs that emerge and invade in various intervals. I’d taken a photo of the kids when they were 7-9-11 and then when the bugs returned 13 years later. I wrote about the kinds of returns you can count on, like ones brought by nature. And the ones you can’t, like the kid’s schedule.

I didn’t have a great answer for my friend, who seemed to be asking…Does it matter?

First, I write it down because when I see something, feel something, I need to get it on paper. That’s just wiring. It’s my first reaction, in some way it tells me how I feel about the situation.

But then why do I need to publish it? Ah, that’s a better question. What’s the need to share it all about? And the closest I can come, is the feedback. Not when I get a cliched answer or an emoji. Those are fine. But when someone tells me their story and it jives or diverges from mine.

When you post on Social Media you get comments from friends and friends of friends. But when you get something in the Wall Street Journal or a major paper, the online comments are voluminous and then the random reach-outs from people across the country is somehow satisfying as my observation dances with theirs.

Do you feel compelled to write? About what?

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