Today during a training day at work, I came across this piece of wisdom scrawled on a toilet cubicle wall:
It gave me real pause. Fascinating, and so pithy. This completely sums up my philosophy on writing and self-publishing, on blogging, on just about anything. Lots of thoughts went through my mind- with regard to blogging- that until I started this blog up, I was certain I had nothing interesting to say on a daily basis.
So I censored myself in advance. I wanted to put something out there in blog format- but I was stricken with doubt. Making it worse was the fact that my site- this site- at times has pulled in very large numbers of hits for the ruins and haikyo posts.
Would I want to put all those people off with non-ruin posts about my writing, life and observations? But then, if those people were only interested in my ruins stuff, and I’m not doing ruins stuff any longer, then how am I gaining by editing myself to avoid driving them away?
I’m not. I’d love for them to cross-over to my fiction, but most seem not to have. That’s fine.
Doubt. Yeah, deep brother.
Then I saw this second contribution on the facing wall, offered up like a comment on a Facebook wall:
Perhaps, an equally wise and universal sentiment. It pays to go hell for leather. Hold nothing back. Commit. Who does Number 2 work for?
I noticed later in the same day that the original message had been wiped away. Now all we are left with is its forlorn echo. That is wabi sabi, my friend, the impermanence of all things.