Guest post by Jason Crawford, author of Chains of Prophecy
As a writer, books are my life. I write them, I read them, I live and breathe them. I create characters one minute and enjoy the characters that someone else has created the next. I laugh when the story takes me to new heights, or weep when my favorites suffer heartbreak and devastation. I talk story to other writers, discussing with them their techniques, learning from them and offering pointers of my own, then I take everything back to my computer (or my pen and paper if I’m feeling old-school) and I make my stories.
But those stories didn’t come from nothing.
As a U.S. American, I’ve grown up in a state of complete and utter privilege. I know this, even if I can’t fully imagine what life might be without it. I have food on my table every day. I have a roof over my head. A car. A job that I like. And this allows me the time and flexibility to weave the tales that come to my mind, to create magic with my words.
Have you ever heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? It’s a simple thing that I use a lot in my teaching career. It says that, unless a person’s base needs, such as shelter, hunger and thirst, safety and security, are met, they will not be able to create, to express, to learn or grow. Basic biology – if your life is constantly in danger, how can you make art?
Make stories?
We love stories. Every one of us, from the day we’re born, enjoy stories from our parents, we enjoy making them up in our own minds as we grow. We tell ourselves stories about how we’re the superheroes, and how we’ll be better than our parents were and buy them red BMW convertibles and houses when we’re rich. Most of us never get farther than that with our storytelling.
But, what I realize now, is that there are a LOT of stories out there.
Think about it. Billions of people live in abject poverty, where the next meal isn’t a certainty, where the next glass of water isn’t for sure. Where survival may or may not happen. And these people, all of their energies are (rightfully) focused on survival, on seeing another day.
But how many of them, given the chance, could make magic with their words? How many of them could weave stories that would enchant the most unfeeling heart, could offer a new perspective on the world, could motivate someone, inspire them to become better than they were?
But these stories are lost. Every day, these stories are lost because their keepers die, waiting for things to get better.
And then I realized that it’s because we’re failing them. We, the people who don’t hunger, who have security. We’re in the position to be altruistic, to give. And, as a society, we do – I’m not going to diminish or look down on the accomplishments of those philanthropists who have done an immeasurable amount for the world, for people in need. But the very fact that there are still people in need…that’s our failure.
It is not an inevitability. Hunger is not a given.
These people deserve to tell their stories. I want to hear them. Don’t you?
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Books by Jason Crawford
Chains of Prophecy ~ View on Bookshelves | View on Amazon