We Write

By Janice D. Krantz

The gift of the marathon is our growth, not just as writers, but as participants in the human experience. It’s a growth that can be measured not by the number of pieces published or journals filled, but by that internal, immeasurable sense of satisfaction, the level of which can be determined solely by the individual. It’s found in the shared experience of the other: allowing ourselves to offer suggestions and being accepted, taking the risk and knowing we cannot fail, indulging in the obsession of the other.

It is a time to search for the new and reacquaint with the old. To connect with that which led us to this personal space – our writer’s home. A home eternally defined by the confines of our city, our Quarter. Not the Quarter of tourists and t-shirt shops or frat boys and strip clubs, but that hallowed space that houses our soul, our essence. That delta which so lovingly fosters our growth then releases us, only to embrace us again when we return as prodigal children seeking her sustenance.

And so we write. Not for others – although they are welcome to share our joy – but for the beauty of the phrase, the thought, the life that flows from our pen to our page. We write of the encounters – contrived and controlled, haphazard and hoped for. We write of the food, the drink, the company. We chronicle the absurd and the average, which on our pages become ethereal and extraordinary. We write our emotions, the pain of self-discovery, the relief of self-forgiveness. We write to amuse and to attack. We write to remind ourselves that we matter, if to no one else then at the very least to ourselves and each other. We write for the realization that our words are who we are. We write for that memory of this moment of perfection, this gift of raw unleashed on this page. We write.

Janice Krantz is a teacher of the gifted at Fontainebleau Junior High in Mandeville, Louisiana. She rediscovered her writing soul through the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project and focuses her teaching on sharing with her students her passion for writing.