Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Shelley Bourdon's avatar

Tara, thank you again for going deep with us--and, by that, I mean sharing your heart. I am a person who writes mainly because I simply cannot stop (and, believe me, I've tried). Long ago, I decided I was unable to be a professional writer and maintain a state of emotional health. When I tried working as a journalist, in the early 1980's, my heart dried up and I developed the worst case of writer's block (and depression) that you can imagine. I walked away from writing then, thinking that I was done (becoming a radio disc jockey, instead), but then the Urge to Write returned in a way that I couldn't ignore. Finally, I couldn't resist "the flow" any longer; however, I never tried to make money off of my writing ever again. After all these years, I now realize that my writing serves as a link between my mind and the essence of my soul, and I guess I don't want to do anything that might sever such an important link.

As for my Substack subscriptions, I look for people who are reporting on what the Legacy Media no longer reports upon. I want Substack writers who are exceptionally curious, who are fueled by a love of learning, and who purposely search for folks to interview who have a completely different take on the world. I am thrilled when someone presents me with a new way of perceiving, most especially when it's a new way of examining one of our world's many problems.

Tara, thank you for keeping my mind open to new people and to new ideas. Because of you, I'm currently attempting to build up enough courage to listen to some HipHop music, and that's simply because you seem to love it so much--ha!ha! : )

Expand full comment
Barry's avatar

An interesting comment:

“Toronto is a good city to mind your own business in.” It’s a good thing as well as a bad thing. Nothing is ever special, and everyone is the same. It has to do with the Garrison mentality, and socialism, and the pursuit of equality. Those are all very good things. They just don’t make it very fun to be a writer. It’s like, “You can be a writer, but you can’t be special. You can’t be good at it.” That’s sort of how I think CanLit works. Or doesn’t work, really.

Those are good things, they just make life meaningless. Interesting how we determine things to be good.

Expand full comment
6 more comments...

No posts