Saturday, July 23, 2011

Writing Is My Thing Cosa Nostra

Luke Ford writes: Is writing a pleasure? Sometimes, just like davening, but “pleasure” is not the primary word I’d use to describe my process. Rather, I’d say that writing is my thing. The Mafia have their thing. “Cosa Nostra” means “Our Thing.” I have my thing, my swagger, my reason for being.

I walk around the world and I twirl my fingers and I smile about what I can do with a keyboard. Kinda like Rudolf Schenker with a guitar.

Is my writing a weapon or a coping mechanism? Do I want to shake people up? Do I want to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable?

Yes.

I’m not black and I don’t have a 12-foot spear. White men don’t call me sir. I can’t run 40 miles at a go and I’ll never be a Zulu prince. But on the internet, nobody has to know that. I can climb Mount Kilimanjaro and sing Jerusalem:

And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon England’s mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England’s pleasant pastures seen!