The Writer’s Heart is a Lonely Hunter

“Posterity lies in the written word.”

These are the words of Judith Crist, famed film critic, media personality, and most recently, my personal & professional style professor. Her criticism is biting albeit accurate, and its no wonder she managed to make her way in the old boy’s club that defined journalism when she came of age.

In class yesterday, she told us that at this stage in the game, people tend to feel like a) any talent for writing they may or may not have had is all but lost or b) they wonder how they got away with writing the way they did for so long. I identify with both. Changing perceptions and the development of a more critical eye inevitably lead to a harsher view ones own work. Actualizing talent (an amorphous notion to begin with) feels like traveling to a distant horizon, forever out of reach: you know it exists, but you also know you will never reach it.

I suppose this is good thing: when you’ve achieved one goal, its precisely NOT the time to rest on your laurels.

Judith likely won’t read this, since she doesn’t much concern herself with what goes on in ‘outer space.’  I don’t blame her, really. After all, posterity lies in the written word, and the ones  you can hold onto, too.