Goals. Everybody has them, though it's often a love-hate relationship. Today, I've made a new one. I want to live my life like HE 0437-5439! That's the fastest hypervelocity star in the Milky Way discovered so far. Once, it was a triple star system until it nicked the massive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way and was torn apart and reborn.
I used to think writing was all about the creativity, the perfect hook, the eloquence of the line, but now I know I was wrong. Equally vital is what you lose along the way, between the periods and the pages. Pride. Hope. The last shreds of identity and notions of talent. Writing is never static. It's an act of constant eclosion, shedding skin and gaining brand new eyes and limbs to grasp the intangible WORD. But before that can happen, the core of all your assumptions about yourself must be broken down to that last speck of perseverance. The grit makes the pearl, after all (see Emily Dickinson's poem "We play at paste").
So I refuse the coward's comfort. I would rather blaze out in a rush of ink than fade into an easy mediocrity safe beyond the event horizon between fear and possibility. Denise Crow quotes astronomer Warren Brown, who states, "These exiled stars are rare in the Milky Way's population of 100 billion stars. For every 100 million stars in the galaxy lurks one hypervelocity star."
One in one hundred million? I'll take those odds, and run with them. Now if only I could type at hypervelocity speeds!
You can check out the rest of the hypervelocity star's amazing bio here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38362704
That's a really beautiful post, and quite a unique perspective. Thanks for sharing.
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