Knowing

You can only write about what you know. Maybe you haven’t lived through that exact event but feelings that are foreign to your heart can never be expressed purely in written word. This is not a bad thing for how can one show empathy from a place of non-understanding? They cannot. We come together in our sorrow. This is how we come to the Lord: broken and looking for comfort. In joy of peace. While in glorious happiness, the feelings of others are in shadow and our need for others (which is core to our being) remains unknown. We have sorrow to find meaning in our lives. How wonderful is our God that He can turn even our misery into greatness. Lord, help us to know many things so that we can more deeply understand You.

But there is a darkness in only being able to write what you know. When dark emotions of bitterness, hate, spite, depression are shown in your written fantasy how I fear. Because you have to feel these things for them to feel so real in your works. Your inner torment is pleading, reaching out… and I don’t know how to reach it. It’s real, but where is it coming from? And even if I knew the cause, how can I fix the wound? I wish to emphasize but I do not understand enough to be a support. Knowing enough to see a problem but not enough to have the ability to fix the issue is a large frustration. And how do I mention that I see your hurt? When the only way this pain leaks out is in your work, and by becoming aware through this of the minor subtleties in your life that hint at deeper pain, how do I ask for clarity or for your honest perception when you have spent so much effort to hide from me, from the world?

You can only write about what you know. I know frustration and you know pain.