William Saroyan said once, or maybe more times, "You are what you are and it isn't much but you have to make do with it."
So-----here we go-----Making Do.
It's easy for someone like Saroyan to say, "You are what you are . . . " But how do we know what we are? Ask most folks, "who are you?" They'll reply, I'm a spouse, mother/father, a doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief. No, no, no. You are the sum of those things, not any one of them. And the first thing you are is a writer. A writer who uses all the experiences of all the events that have ever happened to you in what you put on paper. You also use that laundry list to get inside yourself, to the core where the real you dwells. When you do this your answer to the question, Who Am I? changes.
If we really want to know who we are we must go within, make an inventory of the real person who lives inside our skins. Okay, let's try it. Be honest with yourself, don't censor your responses.
WHO AM I?
I am a person who loves
I am a person who has strong opinions
I am a person who fears the unknown and change
I am a person who believes in her innate gifts, yet questions them
I am a person who rises after defeat
I am a person who needs solitude
I am a person who often confronts
I am kind, undisciplined, courageous in adversity, a crusader for what I believe
I am spiritual in an unorthodox way
The list could go on forever, but you do get the idea of what and who you are, and in this instance, what/who I am. The list tends to lengthen as you probe deep into all that you are, not all you think you should be. Ultimately, you begin to see yourself in a new light as the unique individual you are.
You see something else, too. Within your list exists a thousand subjects, characters, ideas for stories of a real, live human being. The mind expands, the imagination comes to life, the muse rises. Then, and only then, comes the stunning realization, "Oh my lord, I am a writer, a prose writer on any topic I might choose."
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(Jones is a book critic for The Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, and The Camden Times, Camden, New York.)
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