Keep it Lit By Joe S. Thomas

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I’m ashamed to even admit this and I know I’m doing myself a disservice, but I haven’t made much room in my life for Kurt Vonnegut’s work other than Slaughterhouse Five…  I’m watching the documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time…  I don’t mean to, honestly, but it often happens when I watch a documentary on any writer, I tend to get nostalgic and teary-eyed…  Especially one that is of the caliber of Kurt Vonnegut…  Rest easy in knowing I’m getting to work…  I’m making time for his work in my life…  I try to analyze this feeling I get and I’m pretty sure I know why I get this almost sentimental, loving, admiring feeling I get toward my literary heroes…  In my mind it’s the struggle…  Watching these men and women struggle (most of the time) their whole lives to get something they’ve creatively given birth to come alive and be consumed and appreciated by the RIGHT people is a beautiful thing…  This can start a revolution in my humble opinion…  And what better time than right now for that to happen no matter when you may find yourself reading this…  Writer’s (the one’s I dig), are often dinged in the head…  Wonderfully so…  I mean who in their right mind spends their whole life often times working on something that for all intents and purposes will most likely never be seen by anyone…  But there’s something in the writer (hopefully) that makes them press on even in the  most godawful, horrid times in their lives…  It’s almost a sickness, a compulsion that will not let you go…  And thank the powers that be for it, truly!  The writer’s life is often fraught with so much pain, debasement, depression, addiction, fucked up familes, poverty and so many other wonderful things that give birth to the spark in their soul that allows them to write of what they know…  And they will not, cannot quit…   I love each and every one of them with all of my wretched heart…  They lift me up and make me feel human when all else is telling me otherwise…  See, even now I literally have tears  in my eyes writing this…  It’s so true though…  I can’t begin to list all of the authors I owe a great debt of gratitude and even more to…  From the most famous to the guy in his mother’s basement who will never be read by a single soul…  Do what you do…  Say what you have to say…  Foster that feeling that leads you to the chair, the paper, the pen, the pencil, the computer and treat it as the most important light in your life…  Keep it lit…  You owe that to yourself…  I promise…  Regardless of the outcome…  Plus, you just never know what it could mean to another trembling soul that may need to hear the very sentence you’re writing…  Here’s to you all, sincerely.