Sometimes there’s little response to your postings on the Internet, and no interest at all shown by paper editors. Those may be the days when you feel you might be better off writing graffiti, instead of wasting your time on essays and articles. At least graffiti polluters get attention. Of course, it’s invariably the wrong kind. Rare is the true artist who creates beautiful murals in the neighborhoods. But that does happen, too! I’ve seen some of the murals myself and they can be awesome.
I’ve always thought that if we could catch most of the graffiti scribblers often enough, their punishment should be to clean up their own trash and everyone else’s within a few square miles, and then do community service to learn how helpful they could be with their abilities, instead of destructive. Along the way, they might even choose to get an actual education and go plant flags on other planets in the Universe instead of staking a false claim with their encroachment on an innocent neighborhood that will never be theirs to claim.
But really, we don’t write because we want attention. We write because we can’t not write…if we’re writers.
Now that I’ve gone completely off topic, does it ever seem that you can’t make a difference in the world? What can one writer do in a world of loud-mouthed giants of varying talents? How can a single, lowborn voice be heard in a world dominated by the scions of the silver-spoon-in-the-mouth brigade? (Or the silver-foot-in-the-mouth!) What do you do when you’re only one and small?
Someone once posed that same question to a mosquito. The pesky insect hardly stopped whining long enough to answer. “See that big guy over there?” (whine) “He thinks he’s going to get a well-deserved nap.” (whine, whine) “Watch me!” (whine, whine, whine). And you can fill in the rest of the story yourself. Anyone, regardless of size, can indeed make a difference in the world, even when he or she is perceived as something of a pest. Of course, you want to choose your battles carefully. Some “causes” just aren’t worth the pain.
It doesn’t matter how small you are, or how insignificant your co-workers or bosses deem you to be. Sooner or later, you will make your point, drive the nail home, or cause someone to become so uncomfortable that you bring about badly needed social change. It might even be in that corporate environment that is too often filled with spite, or in a larger area of the real world. The corporate arena, in case you hadn’t heard, isn’t the real world. As a veteran of the business environment, I can state it’s mostly a stage where people play out their dramas, often at your expense. But at very least, it’s free entertainment, though the wounds are real enough!
Never think your voice isn’t worth hearing. You might need to check the ground under your feet and the condition of your bank account first, but always in a so-called free society, there is a reason to speak out, and a way to do so. When it comes to the Internet, praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition!