The fourteenth in a fifteen-part short series, Meet the Writer. These posts were originally written as part of a #meetthewriter challenge facilitated by author Beth Kempton.
If I could wave a magic wand, what writing dream would I manifest? This question reminds me of a question my spouse asked me back when we were first dating.
At the time, he asked me what superpower I would choose if I could choose any one. I thought for a beat, and then responded that I would choose two. After all, I and my neurodivergence don’t dance well with rigid binary choices, especially because there are usually other options when we loosen our thinking to allow it to meander softly through the meadows of our minds.
I told him the first would be the ability to make anyone care about other people. The second would be the ability to fly at will, so that I could fly all over the world and get people to care about each other. Because then we could actually achieve global wellbeing.
Although today’s question is different from the question posed to me 15 or so years ago, my mindset really isn’t that different.
If I could wave a magic wand to make my writing dream come true, I would bring into the world some story – or set of pieces – that inform and inspire hearts and minds 1) to understand the real and present impacts of oppressive systems, and 2) to adjust their own mindsets and behaviours as individuals to contribute en masse to systems change. Of course, the writing would need to reach enough people to spur this kind of systems change.
Is this a wild dream? Of course it is. And yet, in my heart of hearts, this dream has been a driving force propelling my people-centered ethos and wise stewardship in all professional aspects of my life. This is the dream I’ve been working toward for years in the face of great systemic resistance (hardly shocking), and it’s the dream I will continue to pursue.
Facilitating people to care about others so that they interact differently with those others and the systems around them, to in turn set the foundation for the world to be a good place for everyone. That’s the dream.
Learn more about what my “people-centered ethos and wise stewardship” means in these blog posts.
Read more about my writing craft over here.
