Friday, February 12, 2010

Octavia E. Butler

A friend of mine introduced me to the writings of Octavia E. Butler last year. Of Butlers fourteen published titles, I have read five of them. I have absolutely fallen in love with her words, creativity and outlook on life. Although, Butler passed away in 2006, her writings will always be eternal, timeless and classic. With that being said, I am dedicating this post to Octavia E. Butler. I hope you can relate to her logic and writing as I have. I want to write soooooooo much more but I will showcase her writings and you will see why I hold her in such high esteem.

"I am a fifty-three-year old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer. I'm also comfortably asocial--a hermit in the middle of Seattle--a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive."
I value people who know themselves. Seldomly do people point out their flaws. Butler speaks volumes on a person that is in touch with ones strengths and weakness. I too am a hermit in the middle of Atlanta, who can remember being a young writer, who hopes to be a successful aged writer, with that same oil and water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty and drive.

"...I didn't believe much in writing talent. People who want to write either do it or they don't. At last I began to say that my most important talent--or habit--was persistence. Without it, I would have given up writing long before I finished my first novel. It's amazing what we can do if we simply refuse to give up....It applies to anything that is important, but difficult, important, but frightening. We're all capable of climbing so much higher than we usually permit ourselves to suppose. The word, again, is "persist"!"
Wow! Am I a writer? Yes. Am I good at writing? Yes. Is it a talent? No. There are many things that I can do well but my most proficient talent is overcoming. Sickle cell, blindness, knee surgeries, unemployement, heartbreak, death...yes I have overcome. However, I want to learn that word again...PERSIST. I want to be persistent in the merging of my dreams with my realities. The difference betwwen those that make it and those that don't is not talent or lack thereof, most times it's lack of persistence. Use your own talent to persistently do and overcome and in time you will succeed.

Thank you Octavia E. Butler for reminding me of this!

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