All good writers want to share something. We obviously have the feeling that our ideas are important, or we would just watch them drift away like clouds. Writers feel that their messages can help others, enlighten, or clarify murky topics that each of us needs to wrestle with over the course of our lives. Who has not heard the admonition from a writing coach or teacher who seeks to help us write better material, write from your own experience, or write from the heart. When we write about what we know, we often bump up against things we feel as well and conveying our feelings to others helps us to be clear about our meaning and perspective.
Separate and distinct from factual information are the emotive forces that we recon with, wrestle with and ultimately dance amongst. The root word, to feel cannot help but be an active player in virtually all writing. Most often, when writing fails, it is because the writer has not had any feeling, one way or another. I used to be troubled by certain types of writing because the editors seemed to wring all feeling from the work. I have given many dozens of interviews for newspapers and magazines for example that have come out as flat, uninformative and shallow pieces simply because the writer was doing their part in conveying events or ideas without having any feeling about them one way or another.
Worse yet, there have been dozens of letters to the editor that I have written that have been edited to make me sound like an uneducated lunatic. My arm and hand feel tired just remembering all the writing that I have done to try to get retractions or corrections published in local newspapers. Editorial policy is often at the heart of removing all feeling from stories. Perhaps when we learn to call things the way we see them, hold the oppressors responsible for their actions and allow reporters to learn enough to care about important issues, there can be a change in the written sources of information that we have available. It seems that we have become adept at allowing people to make up their minds without having their hearts and emotions informed at all. By simply pulling a few intellectual strings, we can often make the puppets, or "sheeple" dance to the tunes of the bigwigs.
One of my main reasons for writing comes out of a strong urge to find justice amongst the taint that the uberwealthy seem to put on everything. We had an interesting thing happen in Green Bay, Wisconsin yesterday. It helps to point out the feeling part of writing because it is not only an issue dear to the hearts of many, but allows me a chance to peel back the onion of meaning just a few layers. The NFL (National Football League), a multi-billion dollar "not-for-profit" organization has a rule that if a team does not sell out their stadium, the television broadcast of their game is supposed to be blacked out on local television. Tomorrow, the Green Bay Packers are supposed to play their first playoff game of the season, but three thousand tickets remained unsold. This, in a stadium that recently had over six thousand more seats added to the capacity. The expected game time temperatures being below zero didn't help ticket sales, but the threatened blackout caused a huge uproar in both the local media and in perhaps thousands of conversations around town. Judging by what I was hearing, there was a huge amount of disgust for the NFL.
We are each entitled to your own opinions, not our own truth.
The news downplayed the hostility that was being voiced by fans and nothing was said about the NFL other than these are their "rules". In the meantime, the three thousand tickets that were not being sold were in addition to the two thousand tickets that are being re-sold through the aftermarket resale agencies. This reflects the reality that over five thousand people who would normally attend just didn't want to sit in the cold to watch their team. The price of tickets remained firm at over $100 per ticket and the team asked for and was granted a twenty-four hour extension on the requirement for selling our all the tickets to avoid the blackout. This allowed a consortium of "business leaders" to organize a buy out of all the remaining tickets to meet the NFL's requirement of a sell-out, while only costing the big dogs around three hundred thousand dollars. These half-dozen companies immediately started advertizing the wonderful thing they did, and the news has been telling us that some lucky high school students were randomly selected to receive the tickets.
The overarching feeling in all of this is that we will all be relieved of the threatened injustice of not being able to watch our beloved Packers. The NFL's arbitrary rules, the corporate bail-out that is the massive ticket purchase and the frivolity with which area banks and corporations spend the profits they make off our transactions with them never came up. Instead of taking any of this seriously or asking the deeper questions about why these rules exist at all were left in the wind. The tiny flap that would have resulted from people having to listen to the game on the radio might actually have led to some positive outcomes, if we had been allowed to feel what was really going on. In a very real way, the Packers organization found a way to wrest a little more than an extra $300,000 from our community. If I printed up three thousand t-shirts that no one wanted to buy, what corporado would snatch them up so that my loss would miraculously be turned into a gain? Never mind the fact that the t-shirts would be about ten percent of the cost of all those tickets.
Ironically, just adding a few zeroes to the numbers can change not only the meaning, but the feelings behind what we allow ourselves to "see". My feeling is that if there are companies that can afford to squander a heap of cash for the sake of allowing the gamer to be broadcast, great. They can subsidize whoever and whatever they want, as long as it is legal. Where I get peeved, is when they turn around and take the cost directly off the top of their taxable income by producing an advertizement that turns the whole thing into part of their advertizing budget. Not only are they using their abundant cash resources to bail out a fellow corporate entity, but they will be receiving government consideration that exceeds the costs of their actions.
All the feelings that swirl around the "Green and Gold" are mixed up with this issue, so many will avoid the difficult questions. They dredge up feelings. Better to give a wink and a nod to those who really benefit from the team being in our town rather than asking why the organization pays no taxes. Not only that but it also seems to be better to pay a half percent extra sales tax for their grounds keeping expenditures and electric bill, instead of holding them accountable for their actions. This is one example of the fact that if you build it, sometimes people won't come.
Just like back in the day, when Bart Starr's son (who I had played with as a child) died of a drug overdose, nothing was said about how he got the drugs that he overdosed on from players, the news has a certain perspective, a certain feeling that they wish to convey. Although tragic, the news was never truthfully told. Letting the cat out of the bag about what the team really does, both on an off the field or what it actually represents for our fair city can never see the light of day. If it did, we would have to come to terms with some harsh and unpleasant truths. The annual report that the Packers organization releases about how much money flows into our city because of them neglects to include the true costs. Most of the money flows into increased alcohol sales, chain restaurants and motels, and investments in infrastructure that is only used ten days each year.
My feelings about this and other issues should be spelled out plainly. I wish that other writers could be so honest. Finding my own way through the mountain of feeling that our exploitation at the hands of oligarchs has created is helpful for me as an individual, but if I can share what I have learned along my own path with others, it has the power to be helpful to many others as well. Trying to remain true to my beliefs, honest about my own feelings and accurate in my perceptions guides my writing and my word choices. I only hope that they convey the depth of feeling that inspired my process. Learning to love those who would hate us can take a lifetime, but writing about the abject lack of humanity and compassion that floods the popular media only takes a relatively short time. In all honesty, the pathological nature of our attachment to our angst is just a cover for our true feelings that something unjust is afoot. I always have to remind myself and my readers that people who can neglect their basic human instincts or compassion and humanity so thoroughly, abusing others so cavalierly, feeling justified in inflicting their abuses must truly have been hurt very badly as children.
Love may be the only salve that can heal wounds that deep.
Separate and distinct from factual information are the emotive forces that we recon with, wrestle with and ultimately dance amongst. The root word, to feel cannot help but be an active player in virtually all writing. Most often, when writing fails, it is because the writer has not had any feeling, one way or another. I used to be troubled by certain types of writing because the editors seemed to wring all feeling from the work. I have given many dozens of interviews for newspapers and magazines for example that have come out as flat, uninformative and shallow pieces simply because the writer was doing their part in conveying events or ideas without having any feeling about them one way or another.
Worse yet, there have been dozens of letters to the editor that I have written that have been edited to make me sound like an uneducated lunatic. My arm and hand feel tired just remembering all the writing that I have done to try to get retractions or corrections published in local newspapers. Editorial policy is often at the heart of removing all feeling from stories. Perhaps when we learn to call things the way we see them, hold the oppressors responsible for their actions and allow reporters to learn enough to care about important issues, there can be a change in the written sources of information that we have available. It seems that we have become adept at allowing people to make up their minds without having their hearts and emotions informed at all. By simply pulling a few intellectual strings, we can often make the puppets, or "sheeple" dance to the tunes of the bigwigs.
One of my main reasons for writing comes out of a strong urge to find justice amongst the taint that the uberwealthy seem to put on everything. We had an interesting thing happen in Green Bay, Wisconsin yesterday. It helps to point out the feeling part of writing because it is not only an issue dear to the hearts of many, but allows me a chance to peel back the onion of meaning just a few layers. The NFL (National Football League), a multi-billion dollar "not-for-profit" organization has a rule that if a team does not sell out their stadium, the television broadcast of their game is supposed to be blacked out on local television. Tomorrow, the Green Bay Packers are supposed to play their first playoff game of the season, but three thousand tickets remained unsold. This, in a stadium that recently had over six thousand more seats added to the capacity. The expected game time temperatures being below zero didn't help ticket sales, but the threatened blackout caused a huge uproar in both the local media and in perhaps thousands of conversations around town. Judging by what I was hearing, there was a huge amount of disgust for the NFL.
We are each entitled to your own opinions, not our own truth.
The news downplayed the hostility that was being voiced by fans and nothing was said about the NFL other than these are their "rules". In the meantime, the three thousand tickets that were not being sold were in addition to the two thousand tickets that are being re-sold through the aftermarket resale agencies. This reflects the reality that over five thousand people who would normally attend just didn't want to sit in the cold to watch their team. The price of tickets remained firm at over $100 per ticket and the team asked for and was granted a twenty-four hour extension on the requirement for selling our all the tickets to avoid the blackout. This allowed a consortium of "business leaders" to organize a buy out of all the remaining tickets to meet the NFL's requirement of a sell-out, while only costing the big dogs around three hundred thousand dollars. These half-dozen companies immediately started advertizing the wonderful thing they did, and the news has been telling us that some lucky high school students were randomly selected to receive the tickets.
The overarching feeling in all of this is that we will all be relieved of the threatened injustice of not being able to watch our beloved Packers. The NFL's arbitrary rules, the corporate bail-out that is the massive ticket purchase and the frivolity with which area banks and corporations spend the profits they make off our transactions with them never came up. Instead of taking any of this seriously or asking the deeper questions about why these rules exist at all were left in the wind. The tiny flap that would have resulted from people having to listen to the game on the radio might actually have led to some positive outcomes, if we had been allowed to feel what was really going on. In a very real way, the Packers organization found a way to wrest a little more than an extra $300,000 from our community. If I printed up three thousand t-shirts that no one wanted to buy, what corporado would snatch them up so that my loss would miraculously be turned into a gain? Never mind the fact that the t-shirts would be about ten percent of the cost of all those tickets.
Ironically, just adding a few zeroes to the numbers can change not only the meaning, but the feelings behind what we allow ourselves to "see". My feeling is that if there are companies that can afford to squander a heap of cash for the sake of allowing the gamer to be broadcast, great. They can subsidize whoever and whatever they want, as long as it is legal. Where I get peeved, is when they turn around and take the cost directly off the top of their taxable income by producing an advertizement that turns the whole thing into part of their advertizing budget. Not only are they using their abundant cash resources to bail out a fellow corporate entity, but they will be receiving government consideration that exceeds the costs of their actions.
All the feelings that swirl around the "Green and Gold" are mixed up with this issue, so many will avoid the difficult questions. They dredge up feelings. Better to give a wink and a nod to those who really benefit from the team being in our town rather than asking why the organization pays no taxes. Not only that but it also seems to be better to pay a half percent extra sales tax for their grounds keeping expenditures and electric bill, instead of holding them accountable for their actions. This is one example of the fact that if you build it, sometimes people won't come.
My feelings about this and other issues should be spelled out plainly. I wish that other writers could be so honest. Finding my own way through the mountain of feeling that our exploitation at the hands of oligarchs has created is helpful for me as an individual, but if I can share what I have learned along my own path with others, it has the power to be helpful to many others as well. Trying to remain true to my beliefs, honest about my own feelings and accurate in my perceptions guides my writing and my word choices. I only hope that they convey the depth of feeling that inspired my process. Learning to love those who would hate us can take a lifetime, but writing about the abject lack of humanity and compassion that floods the popular media only takes a relatively short time. In all honesty, the pathological nature of our attachment to our angst is just a cover for our true feelings that something unjust is afoot. I always have to remind myself and my readers that people who can neglect their basic human instincts or compassion and humanity so thoroughly, abusing others so cavalierly, feeling justified in inflicting their abuses must truly have been hurt very badly as children.
Love may be the only salve that can heal wounds that deep.
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