black ink archives and networked community activities
Dedicated to Tonya D. Floyd
The Wriiter's Bench
gettin up off the bench, in my case, takes some doing.
because I found the bench quite a comfort.
call me a watcher, for the past year.
Like a familiar star trek voyager episodes - its been echoes of the void, and its real comfortable looking into a deep space of nothingness.
Reality is another situation altogether.
People zone out on different things. I zone out on Star Trek because its an idea of the future.
And the earth of "Star Trek" is not a bad place to be - no need for money, no poverty, the ability to travel by "energizing" to where ever you want to be, or take a trip via a galaxy class or star ship traveling at Warp 9 - not bad.
But life isn't Start Trek, and poverty exists, along with all the other ills of our society.
Time to turn off the television (not really) - I'm always gonna watch my Trek tapes. Yes, I'm a trekkie.
But I'm also a black woman who really hasn't been all that interested in traipsing over the same old ground for the same ole reasons.
Sorta got sick of myself saying the same ole things. The question I asked myself - is it relevant.
I knew the answer. Until things change - it still is.
LaBelle was always one of my favorite girl groups. Patti has a voice that is stratospheric. Their costumes were spaced out - literally, and the writing of Nona Hendryx was compelling. It was my musical star trek.
Being a writer is not easy. Telling a story takes time, thought, and some guts. I don't care what anyone says, telling your story or some one else's takes courage.
Some stories are not an easy telling. The beginning and the end are not even the most difficult parts in my opinion, its that middle-stuff that grips you. Its the part where you literally have to "get over the hump".
Take Alice Walker's Miss Ceily, or Zora Neal Hurston's Janey, or Toni Morrison's Sula.
Each of these women had strength, but getting to that strength - they had to love a man, lose a man, and find themselves in some of the most painful ways.
Mister was an abuser. Tea Cake was a gambler. And Ajax was just not interested in love that came with emotional commitment.
Some times you have to touch a story, read a blog, watch a movie, view a television show, or even enjoy a soap opera because if it can happen it has happened and truly no woman is not alone in either her happiness or her misery.
There is nothing new, only more creative twists to old issues.
So, sitting on the bench has been a respite, but I guess its time to step up to keyboard and taps some more keys into a coherent set of words, sentences, and paragraphs knowing, that I'm not alone, and never have been.
Langston Hughes