Stories are funny things because they often live in our minds long before they're introduced to the world. In that way, they're real long before they're really real.
But the scary thing about a story that needs to be told is that some point, that story has to move from your mind into a medium that breathes it alive for the rest of the world.
At some point, you've gotta' put words on the page and hit publish. And once you do, they exist for everyone. And that is one of the scariest moments in the life because it's no longer only your story. It now enters the collective unconscious, full of evangelists and critics alike.
And before you think that you are exempt from this underlying tension that often gives birth to fully fleshed conflict, please understand that I am not only talking about the written words of a writer or even the designs and bold strokes of an artist. No, I am talking to you.
I am talking to everyone with a dream.
I am talking to everyone with a child.
I am talking to everyone who at some point must step out and say, "I exist." I am talking to those who would leave a career to follow their dreams. I am talking to those who would leap even after their look doesn't look promising.
I am talking to each of us and all of us because we all have the spark within to do big things.
In the moment that we write that first word, that we press the brush against canvas, that we create a social media post announcing our intent, that we deliver our letter of resignation, that we sign a lease on a storefront: theory becomes practice, theology becomes practical, ivory towers crash and crumble, and you step out as a hero--and people want to see heroes succeed because it brings hope to the ideas still percolating in their own lives.
In that moment, the story is being written and will never be erased without violence, and that is, often, absolutely terrifying.
But I promise you this, the alternative is more terrifying still.
Comments