It's a question many of us ask ourselves at different times in our lives. When we're young, we're often foolhardy and willing to express ourselves , regardless of the consqeunces. As we get older, we worry how people will view our ideas, or what they'll think of us after we express our views. The questions we face are endless.
Are you too young to have anything important to say?
Are you too old for anyone to care what you have to say?
Are you too chauvinist or feminist?
Are you imaginitive, creative, able to spend lots of time in developing thoughts and expressing ideas through the actions, words, and thoughts of the characters that inhbit your world or worlds?
There are literally thousands of questions you couyld ask yourself as a writer. But, why? As a former teacher of Agriculture and all the applied sciences I've come to realize that everyone has stories to tell. Call them memoir, short stories, historical accounts, whatever. We all have something to say. All our views have importance to future generations. A number of people alive today still remember the vivid facts of the Kennedy assination. We can all go back and read about it in the newspapers. But the reason it's important that more than one reporter's account is needed is because even though a number of us saw it happen, the newspaper account doesn't reflect how it changed the lives of the millions who witnessed it on television. We were all in different places, saw it from different angles, ages, religions, democrat , and republican views. In that instant and thousands of others, our world changed forever. It was an experience, like that of our pioneer parents felt needs to be recorded so that future generations can experience the feeling and emotions of the moments impact on all of us .
We all have words, thoughts, and emotions that cry out to express our passage in history. We all have a duty to be writers. Long after we're gone, our words and experiences need to live on for future generations to understand the times and events we lived through. Dying is something we do every day, living is the hard part.
Who should write? All of us.
