So you’re at the sink, washing up the breakfast dishes when a writing idea pops into your head. It’s brilliant; it blazes through your body. Do you:
A) Dismiss it because you can’t do it justice,
B) Disregard it because the world’s on fire and there are more important things to do, or
C) Heed it and head to the writing desk?
Because you like to write, let’s assume you choose C. You carry a mug of hot liquid to your desk, where you take out notebook. You uncap your favorite pen. You gaze out the window. Do you:
A) Panic at the blank page and decide this isn’t worth it,
B) Form words carefully inside before writing them down, or
C) Blather on the page in hopes you’ll find your way?
Let’s pretend it’s a good day and you chose B or C. An hour passes, leaving you with a draft. Before you head off to your job, you read it over. Do you:
A) Crumple it up and feel miserable because you’ve done a disservice to your idea, you’ve used clichés, your word choices are pedantic, and you really should give up writing,
B) Inflate with pride because it’s amazing and everyone will now recognize what a genius you are, or
C) Feel grateful for your quiet hour, acknowledge your writing’s flaws and gifts, and look forward to tomorrow?
I could go on, leading you through drafting, revising, and releasing, but let’s stop here. In every moment we face a choice: Do I react or do I respond? Reactions are impulsive, fast, egoic, and emotional. Think of chemicals coming into contact—reactions are a flash opposition to a circumstance.
The word respond, on the other hand, means to make an answer. Responses are considered and slow. Pure response emerges from our best self, passes through our thoughts and feelings, and becomes a deliberate choice. Reactions come easy while responses always demand something. They’re hard.
I like distinguishing between these two because my writing is damaged when I’m reactive and flourishes when I’m responsive. I’d even go so far as to say reactivity can’t be creative; it’s too controlled by circumstance and impulse. Responsivity is inherently creative because it draws from our deepest well. We can be in dialogue with inspiration, the call and response taking form on the page.
This is why I have such faith in writing as a spiritual practice. The literary craft conditions us to be responsive—to our creative urges, to the challenging realities of the creative process, to our audience. In an age where reactivity runs rampant, I invite you into a measured practice of response, on the page and in life.
—Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew
Photo by Kelly Moon on Unsplash
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