“Why do you write these long posts? You must want to be a writer.”
When you write stories, there are all kinds of reactions you get in return. There are the smiles, laughter, or the warm fuzzies. Possibly tears or an encouraged spirit. Sometimes a person just says, “I enjoyed that piece you wrote. Keep writing.” Maybe another proclaims a newfound motivation or re-connection to God and encourages me to tell more stories by returning with an incredible story of their own. That’s like gasoline to my combustion engine.
Then there’s the others. The others are an omniscient tribe of nomadic internet explorers that comb over every word, punctuation mark, and keystroke of a story searching for the iniquity or point of negativity that can be used to articulate their model of rectitude. In country boy terms, the others like to urinate on your parade.
More specifically, when you write or present anything publicly, the others feel the need to market what they perceive to be wrong with your story. Too long. Too short. Too harsh. Too mushy. Trying too hard. The others remind you that you didn’t disclose every detail of the story as if to say you are lying. They like to post vague or subtle comments in some sly, well thought out attempt to “expose” you. They may point out that there were only 183 people at an event and not 200 like you wrote. They may let everyone know that the fish you caught only weighed 6.2467 pounds and not the seven pounds you bragged about to your readers.
Maybe they are just Debbie Downers or never got to eat Little Debbies as a child. I’ve heard there can be lifelong negative mental effects from being deprived of fudge rounds or cosmic brownies. I’m assuming they never had Jackie Abbott for an 8th grade English teacher who taught us things like creative exaggeration and what she liked to call “writer’s privilege.”
A guy I used to catch a lot of fish with when I was in college stated, “Never let tiny truthful details get in the way of an awesome fishing story.” That was an LOL before LOL even existed. He said the same thing about weight lifting, golf, and girls. He was as country as slopping the hogs and also a strong Christian man. He would never advocate lying, but he had enough common sense to know there is fun in telling or listening to a story when a little extra jelly is spread on the bread.
Before the others give me another AH-HA moment, let me say that I never intentionally try to mislead anyone when I write. 99.5% of my words would hold up in court under oath. Somewhere in the .5% or the 99.5%, I hope you find the real points in the middle of this thing that I do. I hope reading my stories helps you take another step when you just can’t go any further. If you are addicted, divorced, broke, or struggling with an issue, I hope you read a story and find a shelter from the world. I hope you smile, laugh, cry, jump up, bow up, sit down, or have some kind of emotional reaction when you read this column called Do It Expertly. Most of all, I hope you are always pointed towards God and draw nearer to Him. I pray that I can do some of that or any of that.
“OK, so you’re not lying. Why do you write these long posts? You must want to be some kind of writer.”
A friend of mine recently shared a story she read online about a corn farmer.
“There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.
So it is with our lives… Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all….”
I love all stories, but especially this one.
God’s Word reminds us of how we ought to live. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up just as you are doing now.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11.
“So why do you keep writing these long posts? You must want to be some kind of writer.”
No. I just want to be a corn farmer.
