Last night’s haiku referenced a link to Neil Gaiman’s words for the start of a new year. One really great thing about following a bunch of writers on the twitterverse and facebook is that, well, they’ve got a great way with words, go figure.
If I ever did become Queen of the World, I’d want someone like Neil Gaiman writing speeches for me because he just pulls the truth out of things and puts them right there in front of you, plainly and beautifully, so you want to pick them up and carry them with you.
So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we’re faking them.
I looked down at my little ring of fearlessness
and I thought – it’s not really about being fearless which often implies “I’m not afraid of this that or the other thing!” but it’s being brave, having courage enough to act despite our fears that keeps us going, that pushes us to try, to do things we might not think we can.
Maybe it’s not being brave or being fearless exactly. I’m thinking bold might be even better as in “to boldly go where…”
None of these definitions really matter in the end. What matters is to do, even if you’re just, as James Victore or Neil Gaiman urge us, faking it until you are that artist, that person, doing that thing because that’s who you are. In doing, we become.
