Saturday, July 24, 2010

Hi There, Gorgeous! Oh, But Don't You Look Pretty Today

I want to talk about people for a moment. Home Sapiens. The people who live next door to you. The folks down the road. That mildly abrasive lady who mangles your mail when she shoves it a weeks worth into box too small to hold a piece of bread. Human beings. We, The People.

I love us. We ROCK!

Now with BP still crapping their pants and an idealistic American President who seems to be finding his power limited by a political system that seems to have given up on idealism right around the time the ink dried on Bill of Rights; with North Korea threatening a nuclear strike (like that's a good idea) and loads of people around the globe being generally shitty to one another every second of the day, it must seem a bit naive to take a moment here to celebrate the glory of the human animal--like choosing to praise the dog five minutes after he's shit the rug.

I'm going to do it though because as a Secular Humanist, I believe it's the right thing to do.

To remind you, mister, that we are magnificent. That you, ma'am, are magnificent.
And yes, I talking to you too, punk rock girl! I'm talking to you belittled IRS agent. Insurance salesman. Television writer. Nascar fan. Social worker. Ballerina. Stalwart members of the great Kiss Army. Liar. Skater boy. Junkie. Zulu. Tutsi. Afrikaner. Pugilist. Rasta man. Fisherman. Superman. Senator. Astronaut. Truck driver. Father. Native. Mother. Friends and Lovers.

That homeless couple I happened upon late one night as they proceeded to fuck on a scrap of cardboard a little larger than a bath towel.

All beautiful.

We are beautiful.
In our rapture.
In our inventiveness.
In our sorrow.
Perhaps especially in our sorrow.

"Whoa! So, what's the deal, man?" you ask. "Don't tell me you started this freakin' blog just t0 bum me out with some shit about homeless people gettin' busy! I mean, I thought you wrote comic books or sumthin'! What about the kids?!?"

I do write comics.

I've worked on Superman, Wonder Woman, The Authority and a twelve issue series called The Monarchy all for DC Comics. I've written short comics stories for Vertigo including stories in Gangland, Heart Throbs and Strange Adventures. I also write science-fiction and have a prose story in The Darker Mask (Tor Book, 2008). There's a lot more on the way. I'm pounding out my first full length novel because there's no time like the present and I expect someone out there to keep me honest on finishing a draft before my birthday.

But being a genre writer (or any kind of writer, really), I think, should be about more than naked advertising and geekery (not that either is a crime in moderation). About something more than tooting your own horn and beating your own drum. Sure, I'll be the first to admit that shameless self-promotion looks damned good on some writers--and I've had the good fortune to know many--the majority of them much farther along in their careers and a great deal higher up the ladder of success.

It's the kind of thing that can make you wonder what, if anything, you have to say to add to the great dialogue.
The kind of thing that can make you doubt the necessity of adding your own voice to the choir. To be honest, it's something I think about quite often these days but not because I'm afraid I have nothing to say but precisely because I do.

Loads.

There's a lot of struggle out there. Not just lately, but always. A lot of people lost in the woods and a lot of unexpected changes--the kind that require negotiating some pretty rough terrain, emotionally speaking. So, you know? I figure we could all use a little pep talk and a little understanding mixed in with the wink and the snark and the great grand show.

Hell, I know I could.

Now keep in mind, I'm not here to sell you a bill of goods.

I can't promise I'll be this earnest everyday.

In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that I won't.

But what I can guarantee is that I am genuinely more interested in just how amazing the rest of mankind is...how numinous experiences seem to wait around every corner...than I am in telling you how interesting I'd like you to think I am.

In other words: "Hi there, gorgeous! Oh, but don't you look pretty today!"


1 comment:

  1. Well you also are just that interesting and gorgeous ;-)

    *MWAH*!

    ReplyDelete