I don’t call myself a writer because I’m not one, but if you think I’m qualified to be addressed as one, then you are not totally wrong.
Please don’t give me that look, I’m from a descendant of creatives, my father was a painter, but he spend most of his life as a detective; because for him, life was nothing without us.
He chooses to see life as an adventure and seasoned our every move with pleasure. He would tell us “Eat, rest, read, write and play” Life was just within that circle, until he decided to retire to meet his father whose retirement party was done before his 17th birthday.
Father’s retirement inspired my first and only play “Please don’t tell the Pope”. I didn’t want the Pope to penalize me for crying during the party, after all, it was him who send words through the Cardinal to the Bishop and from the Bishop to the father who told us that “God gives, God takes” so why should we cry if God decided to retire him at that age.
I know BBC exposed me to the Pope when they aired my play in August, 2007, I was scared, depressed and sad, but what should I have done? They say my play was perfect and wanted me to start a career in play-writing.
Instead of listening to them and allowing the Pope to see my nakedness, I ran to Poetry, I wrote my first poem “My life is a blessing” picturing how I destroyed the Cain who killed me many years ago in the garden of Eden. I didn’t want to give him a second chance, so I killed and bury him with my pen.
“Abel, why did you kill him ?” the Priest asked during confession.
“Sorry sir, It wasn’t me, it was the writer” I could hear my voice struggling to speak after a long silence;
“I know you are confused, but I’m telling the truth. This is why I write, I write because writing teach me how to live, I write because writing gives me wings to fly, I write because people need to be reminded constantly that no matter how tough life is, they are never alone.
“I write because more than anything, I want to live a fulfilling life, even if it means falling apart most of the time, so be it, I will never stop creating and re-creating my own stories.”
Yes, I think we should all be writers.