Finding my way back from paradise
On riding the creative impulse when the whole internet wants to drown it out.
I just returned from a tropical vacation, and writing is heavy on my mind.
I thought a week in paradise would be refreshing. I thought I’d read a lot, and maybe get a bunch of new writing done.
Instead, I ate too much and napped a lot.
I’m sure that’s just what my spirit needed, and I don’t regret it. But the words inside me are now building back pressure, ready to explode out onto the page. I feel less inspired to write and more holding the reins of a wild stallion, trying to keep it calm so it doesn’t trample the keyboard.
To me, this is the rawest state of humanity. When creativity surges and connects with life experience and thoughts and feelings to bring forth something that only I — only you — could.
But you know what’s crawling across my screen when I go to my inbox, Slack groups, LinkedIn, etc.? Content about how to use AI to do your writing for you.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There is a place for AI — but writing is not that place.
What I’m doing here, taking a piece of me and meticulously laying it out on the page for you to read, cannot be automated. And to be clear, I don’t believe AI can write — because writing involves so much more than putting one word after another — but it can assemble text quite beautifully.
I don’t want to assemble text for you.
I want you to feel something, believe something, or do something when you land here in my words.
Writing is more than communication, more than revelation, more than syntax — it’s one human spirit reaching out to another in the hopes of connection.
This week, I was offered a part-time adjunct instructor job in the communication department at the local college. I responded with an immediate and enthusiastic YES. I’ll be onboarding and training over the summer in preparation to teach communications classes to undergraduates in the fall.
And all I can think about is this: How can I get my students to feel the power of their own words in my classes?
Because if I can get them to feel the power of their own words, nothing will stop them from pursuing their dreams.
If I can get them to feel the power of their own words, they will go beyond assembling text to communicating with soul.
Nestled right there in the words on the page — or in the words they speak aloud — will be glimpses into who they are, how they think, what they feel, where they’ve been and where they want to go. And with that, we can connect, and maybe, just maybe, I can help them move more confidently in the direction of their dreams.