Truth I Am

The purpose of the writer is explained very simply. We are the present representation of the truth. Our magic lies in not only capturing but re-directing that truth an element as flexible as probably anything you would ever come across. I have been thinking about this recently and realized that in fact whatever a writer writes once written becomes the truth. The fact is that the moment you pick up my writing fictional or non you are expecting a truth from me.

Now consider that alongside what i call surreal writing only cause I don't quite know the actual literary name for the form. Lately I read a book called "Like Water for Chocolate" written by Laura Esquivel. The novel takes you on an emotional ride using the ingredients of recipes set to time. The writer starts the novel talking about chopping onions finely to prevent crying and goes on to speak of her aunt Tita. The second paragraph starts

"Tita was so sensitive to onions, any time they were being chopped, they say she would just cry and cry; when she was still in my great-grandmother's belly her sobs were so loud that even Nacha, the cook, who was half deaf, could hear them easily. Once he wailing got so violent that it brought on an early labor. And before my great-grandmother could let out a word or even a whimper, Tita made her entrance into this world, prematurely, right there on the kitchen table amid the smells of simmering noodle soup, thyme, bay leaves, and cilantro, steamed milk, garlic, and, of course onion. Tita had no need for the usual slap on the bottom, because she was already crying as she emerged; maybe that was because she knew then that it would be her lot in life to be denied marriage. The way Nacha told it, Tita was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor."

Every time I read that passage cause I did more than once a smile comes from my heart. The fact is that that flood of tears brought on y onions with the power to move a child unborn to a flood of creation "Yes I know how that sounds" is marvelous. And whether you as the reader believe it fully or not the fact remains that that flood was Tita's truth. The ability to shape something like that into a believable truth is not as simple as it seems. I have been practicing to write my surreal truths mostly about fire. For some reason the image of fire and the concept of heat and all that can come with it refuses to let me sleep a full night. I'm still practicing.

I started my first Yoga class yesterday. Kundalini Yoga with Elspeth Duncan. During the class she introduced us to the chant "Sat Nam" which means "Truth is my identity" It is a powerful thing to be the personification of truth, a liberating realization and an almost daunting responsibility still I had to think of the truth the writer reports, creates, represents and I had to smile to myself. Every time I pick up my pen I create truth. I send a truth out to the universe. Remember "Stranger than Fiction" with Will Ferrell? Imagine if every character you created was real, what about the ones you left hanging with no end to their truth? or the ones you killed off just cause you didn't know where to take them next.

After a friend of mine read some of my earlier work she asked me "Does everyone die in your stories?" Now that I know my pen sounds out a truth, my truth in many ways I guess I will have to reconsider some of my endings. They still aren't going to be happy and honky dory cause most things in life just don't end that way right? Still it's important to remember that conviction "Sat Nam."