Why do I write?

I write to share stories. 

Injustice and pain is plaguing our world. I want to understand why, what effect it has, and how we can begin to walk towards a more equitable and inclusive world. I write to share stories that illuminate the pain and offer some hope to extinguish it. 

I want to understand the world better and help others understand the world better. I believe from a better understanding of the world, we can build a better future. I believe there exists a better alternative in leadership and economy to what we have now. But we cannot just sit in our own little bubble and pretend that no injustices are happening as a direct result of our capitalist-driven greed and hunger for power. Our race for bigger and bigger, for more and more is called "consumerism" and "imperialism." The race is driven by ignorance of the way our actions affect others. I hope that by illuminating the stories of the people who are oppressed by the regimes of greed and power, we will understand and see the ways that all actions have a ripple effect. 

I write because ignorance is restrictive. The more knowledge that exists about alternative ways of living and being, then the more we can broaden our horizons about the possibilities that endure for all of us. It’s like researching the cosmos. At one point we thought the earth was flat. Now that we know about the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the universe, and the multiverse, we as a collective humanity are able to expand our minds to thinking about alternative life forms on other planets and in other galaxies. In a similar way, by broadening our knowledge and our horizons about the ways that underrepresented minorities experience and think about the world, we can build better political and social systems that can support a diverse population in a more holistic way, ultimately benefitting everyone. 

I also write to have a conversation with others and to connect with others. I write to help cultivate empathy in the reader. I write to help others feel less alone in their lives, stories and experiences. I write to help others realize that we are all connected in our humanity. 

The stories I write about are stories of pain and inequality. They are stories of injustice. What’s the point of telling a story about the pain and injustice of the world? 

"Nobody wants to hear about all that depressing stuff," some people might think. 

I feel ya, bro. Sometimes I want to escape into a fairyland of rainbows and butterflies, too. But can we spend our whole lives escaping? What about the next generation? Are we going to willingly let them inherit a world in shambles? Or, are we going to educate ourselves so we can start to build a different world?

My parents used to always say to me, “Life’s not fair.” This statement is SO true. But there are levels to that shit. 

Just like there are levels of pain. The doctor may ask, “How much does it hurt on a scale of 1-10?” Some injustice is a 1. Some injustice is a 10.  

Just like there are levels of infinity: “There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There’s .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” -from John Green, The Fault in Our Stars. 

Recognizing that others' pain is bigger than your pain doesn't mean that your pain is not real. Our pain is real too. But some pain is bigger than others. And the pain inflicted by colonization and poverty is more painful to the most vulnerable than some of us can ever imagine. I hope my stories can help us imagine it better. 

I write to contribute to our shared, collective consciousness so that we may all grow and evolve as a species. I write to celebrate and honor my spirit and the spirits of the people around me, so that all of our stories may be told. 

When I honor the gifts of love and creativity, I hope that others may too be inspired to share their art and creativity. In the process of sharing our love, art and creativity with one another, may we feel connected to each other and our shared humanity.