It’s funny how we often let circumstances change our whole way of thinking.
A Florida woman walked into a bar and realized she’d been shot. Apparently someone else was the target, but she got in the way as she entered the door. Luckily she had quite large and ample “love handles,” allowing the bullet to enter and exit without doing any real damage. Before this close brush with death, she had been dieting—but no more. Those love handles had saved her life. She said, “I want to be as big as I can if it’s going to stop a bullet.” So now she’s working on enlarging them, for a protective shield that will forever be in place—just in case…
I’ve done the same thing myself. Not been shot in the love handles, but used circumstances as an excuse to go in a different direction, quit something I’d started, or just give up. It’s easy to feel defeated by circumstances and to put a protective shield up around ourselves to keep the hurt out.
Someone doesn’t like what I write, so I give up writing. That’ll teach’em! When what I should do is keep on writing. Write so much I work off all the weight of words that held me back from excelling.
Like the woman in the bar who thought a larger love handle would keep her safe, while what she really needed was to avoid that area of town and workout at home till she lost the weight—I need to avoid reading more into my rejection letters than they actually say and continue to improve my writing until the right agent is no longer able to tell me “no thanks.”
Thanks for reading my personal pep talk. Now I need to go and write.
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Wow.
(Now I know how others feel when they don’t know what to say in a comment… I do want to let you know I appreciated the post, though.)
Thanks for the encouragement to keep on keeping on, especially in adversity.
As a fellow writer, I never would have connected those particular dots. But you did–and you did it deftly and cleverly!
Ron
http://inspiredbyron.blogspot.com/
I think it’s kinda like me waiting for that special someone… We have to wait on God’s timing. Even though you’ve been working hard a long time. I love you
If they don’t want to have you, they aren’t right for you anyway, and it would be a doomed love connection. Unless of course it’s The New Yorker or Daniel Craig. I used to “enjoy” rejection letters better when they came on company letterhead. That way I could wallpaper a medium sized bathroom with them in no time at all. Big thanks for the reminder and encouragement. Don’t you dare stop writing or hanging out at sketch bars!