Genuine writing

I look at things all the time.  I look out at them . . . in at them . . . up at them . . . and I am sorry to say, sometimes down at them.

The biggest hurdle is my own perspective.  How I write about something cannot go beyond my own understanding of it.  So, it would seem the best way to get around that is to broaden my experiences, which helps but isn't the end all and be all of the problem.

I cannot go back and alter the experiences of my childhood, or fundamental life style.

Living in a dirt floored shack, eating buggy rice and knowing I could die from an infection that could be cured with soap and water would only be an experience for me -- like going to camp.  I would always know I could step away from that.  That changes everything.

Experiencing extreme poverty with no hope is as beyond my actual reach as is life in the top few percent who have never really worried about money.

Most writers seem to write about things, but the ones who have moved me the most are the ones who write from things.  To write with the perspective and candor of a child with the fluency of an adult is the stuff of Pulitzer prizes.

How I would love to tap into that sort of genuine writing.