Writers Write... Doctors Don't Doct...
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| From Morguefile |
Actors act, curators curate, and orators orate. But doctors don't doct*,
victors don't vict, and pastors don't past. Such is the English language. And
we certainly don't want ancestors to ancest, traitors to trait, or gators to
gate.
I loved that post and it stuck with me. Pastors don't past...we, um, pastor... Motivators motivate... You can probably come up with others...
But the point that I want to get to (honest) is that we call ourselves what we DO. Right? Teachers teach; managers manage; singers sing; etc. We often define ourselves by what we do. Or, well, sometimes we define ourselves by what we IDEALLY do. A lot of aspiring actors do this, aspiring students do this, aspiring artists, writers, entrepreneurs, musicians, athletes, well...aspiring EVERYTHING. Kids play at it. "Look, daddy, I'm a fireman!" We call ourselves all kind of things.
And this isn't about not being defined what we do. That's for another day. I'm not completely defined by what I do - yet can I call myself a guitar player if I only pick that thing up Sunday mornings?** I mean isn't that a bit disingenuous? (wow, I spelled that right on the first try - I messed up fireman up above on the first try, though... and though as I just tried to type it... sigh) I suppose I could get so good on guitar that I could feel that I didn't need to learn anything else or that I COULDN'T learn anything else. Yeah, it's funny though, I read about some of the guys who have been playing all their lives still picking up their guitars every day and playing scales and stuff... yeah, that's not me.
But I do call myself a writer (among other things). And that's one of the reasons this blog exists - and why such random posts exist on this blog. I read somewhere (dang it, I can't find it - my Google-fu is not strong today) some really good advice. It went something like this:
Writers write. Every day. If you don't write every day, you aren't a writer. You may want to be, you may aspire, you may dream. But you aren't a writer. Writers write. It's that simple.
And so I started writing more. About anything. John D. MacDonald probably said something like it takes writing a million words to get good at writing. Stephen King has talked about that principle, I think in his book On Writing, but I haven't read it, so that's at least second hand (from me, third hand...so pretty unreliable). King often gets credit for the million word statement, online at least. Anyway, the point is, it takes a lot of practice to get good. Most aspiring...anythings...seem to wait for inspiration or serendipity to hit - you know, the big break, the big moment, the clouds to part and angels to descend with the idea, the client, the part, the song, the whatever... Never happens that way. It's ALWAYS work. Always. Every time. For everything that matters.***
So I write. It doesn't matter if it's "good." It's practice. Here, it's public practice. But my harddrive is full of thousands of pages of additional practice. I may never be a great writer, I may never be a published writer, but I will always be an improving writer.**** I write. Every day. So, I am a writer.
And the deeper point is this. I'm a Christian. I actually prefer to say Christ Follower, but that may just be personal preference. But what does that mean? How do I do that? How do I follow? Am I doing that every day? It's way easy to spiritualize that and say I'm doing it all internally (Bible reading, praying, meditating, fasting - well, not doing that too much - giving, etc) but, really, AM I. I can fool myself, but I can't fool God. AND, well, there's the demonstration of my faith. In the book of James we read that faith without action is dead and then James really lays it on the line. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. I don't want to get into a works-righteousness debate***** I want to say that if we are who we say we are, we do what we say we do. We Follow Christ. We live it. And we live it, primarily, in one word.
Love.
So simple. So elegant. So profound. So really, really hard to live out. And I know I've said before that the ones closest to me are the ones that I probably am the hardest on - most likely because I know I'll get grace from them, I know that they are really likely to forgive my stupidity, my unkindness, my thoughtlessness. But it piles up. I can be pretty unlovable at times - and pretty unloving. And that is true toward all kind of people. And God is working on that in me. But I don't call myself an aspiring Christ Follower - 'cause I'm doing this - every day. I'm bad at it. It's messy. The grammar's off and the syntax is weird - but it's getting there (maybe the writing metaphor doesn't work there - see? I'm still l'm still learning). I'm trying to die to self daily, take up my cross and follow. I'm learning what it is - even at 30+ years as a Christian, 15+ years as a pastor - I'm learning what it is to be a Christ Follower as I do this every day - some days very badly, some days when I don't feel like I have anything to contribute, some days moving backward... But doing it every day.
I am a Christ Follower. I Love.
* Doctors don't doct, but a doctor was a teacher in the
past, from Latin docere (to teach), which also gave us docent and document
(literally, a piece of instruction). (Yeah, not my footnote, actually from the
**Yeah, for the record, I don't call myself a guitar player. I'm a guy who can kind of play guitar. That's it... Though I do pick it up a little more than Sunday mornings :)
***The other things that I AM I don't even think about the "work" it takes to make them happen - I am husband and father and that takes time and effort, right? But I don't count that cost - and I certainly don't wait to be inspired or for my "husband muse" to strike... That's just ridiculous (but might make a great post sometime...heh).
****And I've been songwriting again - I've got a couple that I'm working on. But I need to set some goals - I'm thinking one a week (but that might be too much) - not that too many people will ever hear most of the songs - afterall, it's practice. A million songs before you're good? How about a thousand? I might have hit a hundred or maybe two hundred, I don't know - I don't count them...I've got a looooong way to go to crack even writing a good one yet...
*****Precious little chance of that, I realize, but it's a standard disclaimer, not valid in all states, check your local listings for more information...or, well, you know...
**Yeah, for the record, I don't call myself a guitar player. I'm a guy who can kind of play guitar. That's it... Though I do pick it up a little more than Sunday mornings :)
***The other things that I AM I don't even think about the "work" it takes to make them happen - I am husband and father and that takes time and effort, right? But I don't count that cost - and I certainly don't wait to be inspired or for my "husband muse" to strike... That's just ridiculous (but might make a great post sometime...heh).
****And I've been songwriting again - I've got a couple that I'm working on. But I need to set some goals - I'm thinking one a week (but that might be too much) - not that too many people will ever hear most of the songs - afterall, it's practice. A million songs before you're good? How about a thousand? I might have hit a hundred or maybe two hundred, I don't know - I don't count them...I've got a looooong way to go to crack even writing a good one yet...
*****Precious little chance of that, I realize, but it's a standard disclaimer, not valid in all states, check your local listings for more information...or, well, you know...
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