The other day, I heard an author on a podcast suggest that what we call writer’s block may, in essence, be the fear of vulnerability. In other words, perhaps it’s not so much that we don’t have anything to say, but, rather, that we’re simply afraid to say it out loud. This certainly rings true for me, as I imagine it does for many creatives. For example, I’ve been wanting to write something to post here for about a week now; however, each time I would sit down to do so, my misguided need for perfection and desire to be seen in that light would rear its ugly head and prevent me from following through with expressing what felt so sincere and natural only a few minutes earlier while out for a walk or standing at the kitchen sink doing the dishes.
My favorite movie for the longest time was Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke. In it, there’s a beautiful scene with the two of them that illustrates just how adept our inner critics are at convincing us of our unworthiness and the powerful effect the support and encouragement of someone who believes otherwise can have on our lives: “Don’t you forget this,” Williams’ character mentors Hawke’s. May we all heed his good advice ourselves.