A human flash

"Language is a flash of human spirit." I was in bed this morning, the sun shining outside my window on the patio flowers, well aware that the time had changed last night and it was an hour earlier than my body said it was.

I'm helping a non-writer (although he writes well) with his memoirs. I've insisted he get and read Lee Gutkind on creative non fiction. I did a workshop with Gutkind years ago and he has influenced my fiction writing as well as my non-fiction ever since. I wanted to make sure I reinforced Gutkind's message on our next draft.

As a writer I never stop trying to perfect my craft.

Thus with the sentence "Language is a flash of human spirit," I went "oooohhhh yes."

On the other hand, writing is more than a flash. Words are building blocks that can be taken down, rearranged, discarded or added as needed. Unlike the spoken word, they stay for the writer and any number of readers to examine. They might be read or not. Like the spoken word, they too can disappear with the shredding of a paper, a coffee spill or a finger on the delete key.

Words have power in either form to make us laugh, cry, change. They can be ignored, but never can we be truly human without them.