Like Spiders Across the Stars

“The total of a person’s life is revealed in a single, ordinary day.”

Could all that a person is, all that a person has passions for, desires for, hatred against, empathy with, be revealed in one single moment, in one single day?

I believe so.

I believe that each second we breathe, each second we sigh, each second we waste, or each second that we live could determine and have affect in unbelievable ways on our meanings within our confusions of life; even on the stories, paths, and lives of the others journeying beside us. One of my absolute favorite authors, Jack Kerouac, says in his book On the Road, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” His desire to live for more than just a typical, normal life is completely expressed in this one single, inspiring statement. As I read this, I felt such a deep want to be known as “mad” throughout my life, to “never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn!” So much is conveyed in one single sentence, one single moment. One thing that I love about literature as well, is that these single moments have the ability to last until the end of time, creating single moments for each person that dives into its text. What a beautiful expression of art.

Here’s the most amazing thing about literature: the vastness of a human beings own life can be summed up within its pages. So many experiences that calculate to the character that someone is can be revealed to the reader within a mere sentence. What a beautiful concept; that the presentation of words can hold such a vastness of life. This is why I am such a lover of the written word. I can sit down and read a novel, a poem, a sentence, and have some idea of who this person is, where they are at, what makes them the writer that they are. There can also be so much hidden meaning behind stories or poems that take time to discover its true purpose and intention. It becomes a puzzle for the reader, a place to discover and divulge.

This is why writing should not be taken for granted. We should all be writing more, all discovering who we are or have become from our written tongue.

My hopes are to become a journalist one day. My hopes are to precisely convey the young woman that I am, that I’m becoming, while inspiring others to go beyond the unknown and be the best they can possibly be. Words are one of the most powerful ways to move human beings.

So go ahead, take a pause from everyday life, grab a book, a poem, a friend’s short story, dive in, and discover the vastness contained in each line.