The other night at the Daphne Marlatt reading, Daphne said something interesting. She said, Rhett… No, no. She said, writers are obsessive. She thinks we tend to continue to come back to that which obsesses us. Even if we try to get away from it, it will always pulls us back. I wonder if that is true? In some ways, I don’t want it to be. I want to write about a range of things but–even if I do– at the heart, will it still be about what sits deepest within? Is this what happens to those authors who only have one great book in them. I have heard it suggested that Margaret Laurence, after the Manawaka books, had nothing else to write. Maybe she worked out her obessions or maybe she just had cancer…
I am pretty sure I am obsessive. I guess I will find out about the rest later.
In my Preaching class, my professor has encouraged us to write for 15 minutes every night. Not as a diary, just on any topic that pops into my mind. She has challenged us to pick a word & then write for 15 trying to describe the quality of what the word means.
My focus this past week has been “home” & that internal drive to want to go home. Several people have died in SK trying to get home in various blizzards. Of course I think of myself as feeling ‘homeless’ and what qualities goes into making a residence a home.
This has been my obsession – I’m thinking that within ministry ‘home’ has many connotations for me to consider within the preaching context.