Back to McGuinn's English class, I'm eighteen and it's 1979. Our "shot-gun writing" prompt on D-Day + 35 involves a response to Joan Didion's 1961 essay* "On Self-Respect." The touchstone I go for: "[T]he willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own
life . . . is the source from which self-respect springs." I think this choice underscores my early embracing of Existentialism, which may be grounded in religion, spirit or secular humanism.
I scrawl out three single-spaced pages, including this: "It is easy to [choose] not to have self-respect. For a person without self-respect is a person without independence [or] responsibility to himself." I then go on to use the word "cop-out" a couple of times, slang for shirking and, really, cowardice. Freedom and Responsibility must walk hand in hand, or we are lost. I hold myself to that way on down the line from there to here. Be Free, Take Responsibility for your arc.
*In Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968).
The Staple Singers say it all right here (1971):
Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.
2 comments:
Man, at 18 you were thinking about Joan Didion and existentialism? I don't imagine I have to tell you what I was thinking about at 18. She wasn't named Joan but she sure existed in my dreams.
For a writing prompt, you certainly didn't have many words scratched out. Whenever I write something, half the words end-up on the cutting room floor.
Post a Comment