I just returned from the funeral of my wife’s uncle Oscar. He died at the age of 86 and was one of the most well-loved men I have ever known. Hundreds of friends and family members braved a frigid, stormy day (in many cases traveling great distances) to pay their respects. He and his wife had seven children and over 50 grandchildren. Many of them told stories about Oscar, like the one, just last year, when he feigned death in the dentist’s chair to play a trick on the dental hygienist.
Oscar was a farmer – a rough-edged but tender-hearted man of the earth who loved hunting, fishing, hiking and anything else that took him out of doors. He wasn’t eloquent of speech. In fact, he probably used the word “scrud” about as much as he used “and” and “the.”
So it came as a surprise to me when his son – one of the speakers at the funeral service – read a few excerpts from the journals the old farmer had written over the past 60 or so years. As he read these passages, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wondered if the words could have been penned by the same Oscar we all knew and loved.
What he wrote was simple yet eloquent, lucid and expressive. I was caught up in his words; captured by the lyrical cadence of his sentences. What he was trying to express came through clearly, simply and sincerely.
Afterwards, I thought, “How many Oscars do we rub shoulders with day after day? How many wonderful writers keep their talents as hidden as their dusty old journals and notebooks – treasures that may never be seen by other human eyes?
Granted, some of us write personal journals that we do not want to be read by anyone, ever. But what about those passages, pages, stories or poems we write that we would love to share with others?
Why don’t we share them? Perhaps because we fear what others will think. Maybe because we lack the means of getting them in front of other eyes. Perhaps we’re just shy, or we don’t think anyone else would want to waste time reading what we’ve written.
So here’s my suggestion: If you have a piece of writing you want others to read, I invite you to submit it as a comment to this post. People around the world who follow this blog – individuals who, like you, are interested in writing – can then read what you have written.
I, too, will read what everyone submits, and will feature some of the submissions that I find to be particularly interesting or notable in one of my regular blog posts in the coming week or two. I plan to make this a regular feature at TheWritersBag.com.
This is your chance to be published and have your work read by thousands of people. I hope you’ll take advantage of it.
We didn’t find out about Oscar’s talent until he was dead. I hope we don’t have to wait that long to learn about yours.
PS. Speaking of sharing your writing talents, I’d like to pass along a message from one of TheWritersBag.com’s regular readers. Melissa Malka writes: “I wanted to share with you a "contest" I am hosting on my blog. Anybody is invited to submit a short story in any form, even anonymously, and I’ll post it for others to read. The contest is open until Jan 31st and the prize will likely be a book from Amazon (recommendations appreciated!) but mainly, its to incite people to share their stories. The link to the info is: http://melissamalka.com/?page_id=85.”
