Saying Yes to Life
by Jenna W
I was just reading something I had read awhile ago. It's a really long piece by Dave Eggers about "Saying yes"; but entitled "Selling Out". He talks about petty dismissal of great works, verbally/mentally diminishing something because it's "not cool enough", and the general lacking of substance in small minds. I was taken again by the ending, which I will repeat a little here in bits and pieces:
What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand.
What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it.
What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say.
Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them.
No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message.
We are "evil people" because we want to live and do things. We are on the wrong side because we should be home, calculating which move would be the least damaging to our downtown reputations. But I say yes because I am curious. I want to see things.
And if anyone wants to hurt me for that, or dismiss me for that, for saying yes, I say "Oh do it, do it you motherfuckers, finally, finally, finally."
Why do I love that? Because it's the truth of a bright and irrepressible spirit. Reading this strikes the deepest part of me, that soaring part that I let out once every other while.
It's about passion, doing, creating, changing, making, moving, shaking, thinking, loving, understanding, knowing, flying, laughing, seeing, learning, hearing, tasting, breathing, diving, soaring... living. To me, it's about saying yes to life. It's about being called all sorts of names for wanting to do it, and fuck them-- doing it anyway, because life's so much more important than pettiness. It's about how life is just fantastic, that it is what I make of it. It's about living it so much that others cannot help but notice. And it's about being noticed and still living it, despite the nitpicking of this critic or that small-minded envious naysayer. Oh, man, it's about insight and wisdom; it's about growth rather than curling in upon yourself. Oh, why curl up, why shut off, when one can leap and think and do and laugh?
And this is the attitude I have chosen, everytime I open my eyes from a night's sleep. It's engagement with my life, a love affair with no end in sight. Having almost lost my life many times before, I cling to it now so stubbornly and absolutely that the passion of possession overwhelms me. Having almost lost myself, I cling to my core white-knuckled and fierce; and why not? It's worth more than all the gold in the world. Yet most people, who have never met me, don't know that I love to laugh. I love these words because of my life.
No matter who has or wants to damage me for being me, I'll stare right back until they shuffle away. I won't shut up; I won't stop, once I've started; I've flown, so I'll keep on flying. I judge on the side of contribution to life, to progress, to laughter, to love, to knowledge. I want to be, to bloom, to eventually be a guiding light. I want to shine. I can't think of a higher purpose than that. It's potentiality, realized.
I am on the side of this piece; I am on the side of David Eggers writing this piece from his heart for all those small minded people who criticize him for selling out to something that's deemed "uncool" after he's written a book about his life. I've read Heartbreaking Work, and I enjoyed it. It was a personal work of pain and living. It was probably not the easiest thing to write.
My favorite line is that last one. I love it, because that's what I feel in my heart. It's that fighting spirit in me, the part that emerges when faced with the narrowed eyes of darkened minds. But now, my core exists to the point where I can say, "It's not a matter of who's going to let me, it's a matter of who's going to stop me."
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