But We Made It - Tumblr Posts
being poor is so weird bc you'll see some edgy nyt or vice article or whatever about rural poverty, and it's all the pictures that are supposed to be sad, and they're framed as that, but it's just like. that looks like my buddy's kitchen. that's what my cookout looks like, people standing barefoot in dirt, holding drinks and wearing tore-up clothes. that sad old house is my house with different trees out front. and it's this weird whiplash, you know? like I know I'm poor, it sucks, but I'm generally happy in my life. and then I open some article written by some fucker from the city, taking pictures of barbecues or homes and treating what I experience as happy moments as tragedy. and it's like,,, am I off for being happy, despite the shit circumstances? or are these people so alienated from me that they can't fathom the idea lives like mine have emotional complexity, that I don't look at my house and see the roof falling apart so much as I see my cats waiting inside, a full spice rack in the kitchen, my loved ones laughing at the table. like are people really so far removed that they think we have no joy or love? I think, when I read those articles, they think we're either sad and self-aware, or too dumb to be anything but content, when it's neither. It is fetishistic writing, and I'm sad because I'd love to see poverty discussed in the mainstream but we aren't humanized, or given depth, or asked about anything beyond tragedy. Their sympathy is a farce.
I feel like this is one of those 'It's the climb' things, where the act if writing is as rewarding as the result itself. Just like painters and musicians get to experience their arts we, the writers, get to experience ours. Words. Their meaning and usage in our languages. But, unlike painters and musicians, our tools have a meaning behind them. Each word has it's own meaning, be it a word like 'food' or 'cathartic'. Behind those words is knowledge. Textbooks are not coded in music or a painting. Textbooks are books. The book that you are writing (or reading) right now contains knowledge, or some knowledge was required to write the book. As writers, we have to learn that knowledge is a part of our art. Sure, it can be annoying, but have you learned anything? If yes, then it is the most valuable thing in this world. You've grown as a person. Other arts make us grow as a person but writing makes us grow as a person after our brains grow to be able to handle that personality. And that is truly beautiful
BEEN THERE.