Made me reflect, but ...

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"Would someone go to Wimbeldon to play one match? Become a heart surgeon just to do one open-heart surgery and then go back to his regular life? Would someone go to law school to try just one case in court? Or go through all the trouble of opening a coffee shop to stay open for one day?" - Heather Sellers, Chapter after Chapter

My response is "Yes! I would", it is who I am. Some days, I feel I really need to be more passionate about one thing, rather than interested in many things.

You can read a sample chapter (chapter 7) here. It is a pdf, so you might want to right click and download it first (for Windows users, I have no idea how a Mac user would do it). Loved the second and third paragraph on the second page.

[Updated 02-July-2008 @ 10:27: provided link to author's site selling the book (no, I don't get any commission). Also added paragraph and link pointing to sample chapter pdf].

Comments

CG said…
I'd do that to, just to try something once I can go through so much before it. I think it's the artistic thing about us, we don't want to do just one thing, we want to try if not many then at least a few...
July 02, 2008 3:02 AM
Richard said…
carra: actually, she is a writer. This rant of her's was about a comment a friend made about wanting to write 1 book. For Heather Sellers, writing is hard work, it takes years to perfect the craft and so the point of writing just one book doesn't make any sense. Then she gives these examples. She continues further saying that you go to Wimbledon because you are a tennis player. Tennis is what you do. You are a writer because you write. Writers don't write a book, they write books (plural). It is who you are, it is your essence and being (rr: I am paraphrasing all this, since I don't have the book with me at the moment).

The problem with me (and it appears a few other bloggers I have encountered), is that we do not define ourselves by what we do. We have things we want to do, but what we do is not who we are. Unfortunately, the world doesn't seem to understand that. It likes to label / name people and leave it at that. If I make shoes, then I am a shoemaker. Period. I may have other attributes, but they are ancillary to my being a shoemaker. This even extends to surnames: I am never Richard, I have to be Richard the Miller's Son, or Richard from the Glen, Richard the Malcontent. Labels. Labels. Labels.

Just think how many societies, cultures and traditions practice and enforce labelling, keeping people in their place - caste systems, social strata. If I am a blacksmith, then, by golly, my son is going to be a blacksmith. Sorry, this is reserved for people of noble blood, you are a commoner. French is the language of the educated, not that vulgar lingua franca spoken by the masses.
July 02, 2008 9:58 AM
CG said…
You're right, but anyone can break the mold by stopping the process of applying labels to everyone around them. People often ask me about my parents, then I am called captain's daughter and so on... I just tell them I am me, I write for a living, but when I think of myself I think writer so maybe I am sticking a label onto myself...
July 02, 2008 10:57 AM
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