An Act of Failure

Neither picture nor a thousand words: A dear friend and author once told me, “writing is the act of failing, again and again.” She was describing a paradox I see in all kinds of art, that in this attempt to capture or convey – a moment in love, the tilt of a wrist, a far-off sound – we will always fall short of the mark. She said if you could make friends with that idea, if you could embrace that failure, you could write. The joke is that, in these acts of failing, we create something else entirely. And sometimes, that something else resonates with someone else, and you and I share perfect understanding, for a tiny, precious while.