To make myself known.
I’m not looking for fame, or fortune. I don’t want to be known like that. In fact, I would like to remain not known in that regard. I couldn’t fathom who could ever want to be famous. While some strive for fame as their dream (and there is nothing wrong with dreaming/achieving that), I feel that far more others fell into it. Just as many probably later realized that it wasn’t something that they wanted, or that fame didn’t actually fulfill them.
Anyway, I digress…
What I mean when I say, “To make myself known”
When you ever look at or know a person, you only know a fraction of who they are. As my Grandma has always said:
“Faces we see, hearts we don’t“
The face of a person is often all we know. We like to think that we actually know people, but we really don’t. We like to think that being connected on social media makes us friends– As if you can be familiar with someone only through the presented instances of their lives in static, still photographs.
Whether it’s a friend, someone you work with, or people you observe and think you can size them up through one interaction. You never really know who it is you are speaking to.
It’s important to separate our life into those things that hold truth… those things we know from first-hand knowledge gained over time… from those things that are untested.
I’m not saying that what you see and experience of a person isn’t important. It IS important. After all, all of the associated actions that an individual puts out into the world are a direct result of the state of one’s heart. It is definitely important to hear a voice, observe a person’s attitude/patience, see their eyes and body language when the conversation is of value. It’s important to feel the touch of their hands and listen to the softness or harshness of their words.
I say “the heart” but what we really mean is: the essence of the person.
There are no reliable methods for sizing up a person through their face. However, we can allow ourselves the time/effort to observe reactions, mental/emotional health, ability to listen, and what makes them laugh.
Once someone has taken the proper time to observe someone then we will see their hearts. We should size up someone by their heart over their face, but balance is important. The heart affects the face (laugh/smile/frown lines) and while the face is certainly not indicative of the heart, it can present some helpful hints. The real key here, is balance.
In writing, I am presenting my heart
The heart is strong, but it is also sensitive. I don’t present my heart lightly for I know I can get hurt, but I do it in good faith that you will realize the significance of this gesture and treat it with the appropriate respect.
But see, my (and your) heart is the only thing that matters, some people get distracted. This is why I present myself under a pseudonym. My face is not important, my skin is not important, my physicality is not important, my gender is not important, my origin is not important. All of these features are only skin deep and unfortunately the general populous these days likes to become fixated on these things and have a certain perception about what they may determine about a person. While there are certain safe generalizations one can make, no one can ever be certain about them.
Writing allows me to present my heart only and prevent distractions. It allows me to share my complete thoughts without interruption and show you the full representation within my head without being interrupted so that one may see the full picture before jumping to any conclusions or interrupt before the full completion of a thought.
My writings will show you what kind of heart/mind/soul I have
So far, everything that I have written has been unprompted. I have no agenda with my writings really. I have spent countless time, developing articles as I so feel called. You may not realize it, but sometimes it may take me weeks to get my thoughts in the proper order for an article. Hours and hours and hours in my free-time sitting at my computer have been devoted putting thoughts into cyberspace. I currently do not have any additional income coming into this and I could certainly be doing any number of other things. But I choose to sit here and share my thoughts, not only to get them out of my head, but to put them out for other people to play (and hopefully benefit) from them.
People don’t always take the time to listen, not only are they distracted, but they often have their mind elsewhere. Why talk if it’s not going to be productive?
In speaking to someone, you are essentially forcing them to listen to you. Now I know that this is not always the case, however, I’m sure you yourself can think of a time where you didn’t really care about what someone was saying, wished they’d stop talking, or just had your mind elsewhere on other thoughts.
In writing, I can find those who do wish to listen and avoid those who don’t.
Writing is an exceptional way to spread ideas for a few reasons.
First of all,
people aren’t forced to read anything. Those who seek out books are looking for ideas to enter their mind, once they pick up a book or click on an article they are willingly putting themselves into an audience position. Their attention is focused. This already overcomes a major hurdle in getting an idea across in person. Now, this doesn’t mean that just because someone has sat down to listen that they will continue to do so. That will entirely depend on the content of the book, what words are used, what the reader is reading for, and their open-mindedness. An additional benefit of those sitting down to read is that reading is usually always a time commitment, people who sit down to read are prepared to trade their time for the value they’re receiving within the text.
Second of all,
people who are actually sitting down to read are better listeners/thinkers/focusers. So long as you are giving them proper value in exchange for their attention they will read the ideas you present to them. People who read more, tend to be better learners I think is safe to say. As such, they will also be the type to better understand one’s material should it be complex. They will also be able to connect more dots than those who read less (provided they read a broad range of things).
Third of all,
presenting ideas through texts allows a level of disassociation between the reader and the source of the one with the ideas. The reader is not sitting in front of a person getting information, they have picked up a physical object. The intricacies of having a discussion or being lectured to are no longer present. Often times, people presenting information to others has the potential of the listener coming to think (sometimes rightly so) that they have to be on the defensive because the person sharing the information is on the attack; another option is that the listener things that person presenting the information has some sort of “agenda”, an “I’m not buying what you’re selling” demeanor; another that they think the speaker has no idea or isn’t suited to be talking about based on one of their characteristics. Unless something a writer writes really presses some buttons and makes people insecure does someone direct their… “frustration”, we’ll call it, at the author rather than saying, “This book sucks” and throws it away and forgets about it.
Fourthly (kind of tied into the third point),
since they’re reading a book they’re usually looking at the book, not the author. So if you are someone who people don’t listen to in-person for some external reason (race/ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation/body type/what-have-you) then people are more likely to not notice that and give you the proper respect of listening to what you have to say– moreso if what one say has value and others are giving weight to what you say.
Fifth,
writing is the act of manifesting your thoughts into the physical 3D plane. People can’t see your thoughts and most people don’t remember every word of a conversation accurately. Physically creating and placing writing into the world allows a specific log of what you said. This allows for information to (hopefully) be not misconstrued and should anyone make a claim regarding you/your thoughts that is inaccurate, you have a log of what your thoughts actually are; if anything is indeed misconstrued it can be corrected or if someone is making claims and other people come to (actually) look for themselves, then they will be able to see that those claims were unsubstantiated/inaccurate. People can say and think all the things about you they like, but the only thing that can actually be judged with any proper weight is what you actually put into the world. Be wary here, because there will always be judgement from others as to what you put out into the world, regardless of what you put into it– so make sure what you are putting out into the world is truly good/worth it since it will be judged regardless, otherwise you’ll be judged.. harshly.
I know how people feel about the Bible/religion these days (and rightfully so since they have been tainted and taken over by those who are not truly good), however there is no denying that there is valuable knowledge scattered within one of the “most important” oldest texts. A very valuable way of approaching literature (and what I follow personally) is to read with an open mind and take the things that have value, and discard the things that don’t.With all that said, there is a perfect Bible verse to pair with this
“Judge not, lest you be judged”
Matthew 7:1
This advice is something that goes against the grain of our very human instincts. After all, we have to judge people immediately every day to evaluate whether or not they are a threat to us and we constantly present ourselves for judgement to the world (what we wear, smell like, how we walk/talk). As such, the advice in this verse is hard to follow. People are going to judge always regardless of anything, even if they are keeping a mind not to.
A slight re-framing of this verse allows for a perhaps more valuable tidbit of advice for life, “Judge all you want, but know that you will be judged yourself.” Good advice for writers who are just setting down the road of their writing journey.
So please, judge away
I could sit and spend my days away typing and telling you what time of person I am. I could say I’m “good”, I could say I’m “smart”, really I could sit here and claim any number of things but that would do me no good.
Instead of telling you who I am and what kind of person I am directly, I am allowing you to infer it. I make no claims as to who I am, I know who I am, but no matter what I could ever say I can never make you think I am who I say I am. I know that ultimately you will decide who I am, if I am worth listening to, and upon the presentation and evaluation of my heart you will decide if I resonate with your heart/mind/soul as well.
I see your worth, I hope you are able to see mine.
Wishing you all the best,
FCP 🙃
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