Why I write all the words myself
It has to do with transcendence.
Each month, 320 Sycamore Studios shares stories, and our love of reading. Because reading with kids can change the world for the better.
Maybe if I’d taken steroids during my university days I could have become a great decathlete.
I mean, I was decent. Conference champion my senior year and one of the top 20 American collegians. But it galled me for a good decade or two that I missed out (and not by much) on qualifying for nationals.
I considered further training after I graduated. I thought I had a shot of qualifying for the Olympic trials, which were then three years away. But then I got an internship in Switzerland, acquired a taste for travel, and left the decathlon behind.
But I often wondered what might have been.
While I was competing, I never seriously considered taking performance-enhancing drugs. But it was interesting to answer the question Why not take steroids?
Aside from the obvious (I might get caught; I could damage key bits of my anatomy), the answer my early 20’s self arrived at was this: I want to find out what I can do with this body and this training in this life.
I found out the answer one day in my senior season when I went out and pole-vaulted better — as Hemingway might say — than I could. I nearly broke the school record and even now, more than 35 years later, the vault is still the 4th-best in my university’s history.
The real reward, though, was the feeling that vault gave me, a feeling of transcendence. A fleeting but ecstatic connection to everything. And when I think back on it now, I can say I came by it honestly.
It’s the same with writing. Every once in a while I write better than I can.
Maybe it’s all a lost cause. Chat GPT can barf you out a story in a moment.
But it can never be a connection to other humans. Or the universe.
It can never be transcendent.
Which is what it’s all about.
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