But tell it slant

Today is the final day of the Framingham State faculty writing retreat I’m attending at the Warren Center in Ashland, MA. It’s a luxury to spend two intensive days working on a work-in-progress, but at the same time, creativity cannot be turned on and off like a spigot. Once the school year ends, my Time To Write begins, and I feel a pressure to Perform and Be Productive. There is no time to waste with dilly-dallying.

Unfortunately, however, my Muse can be shy. When I tell her to say something profound about a specific topic, she looks at me askance. “Who, me?” her expression suggests. “I have nothing interesting to share,” she admonishes, then she lowers her eyes and promptly fades into the wallpaper.

The only way I’ve ever been able to address a topic is indirectly, with a sideways glance. If I want to write about some aspect of the Buddha’s teaching–for example, the fact that the earliest depictions of the Buddha showed his footprint, not his entire body–sitting in front of my laptop is not the way. The way is to walk, or take a shower, or do something completely unrelated. In order to write about this, I need to preoccupy myself with that.

This, of course, is the power of metaphor. You don’t talk directly about loss, heartbreak, or betrayal: these topics are too big, too deep, and too difficult. Instead, you consider them askance. You talk about the balloon that slipped out of your grasp or the toy you dropped out a car window. This loss captures all those other losses, and suddenly you are in the same room with the Terribly Frightening Topic you’ve been avoiding.

Emily Dickinson urged readers–or herself, her most important reader–to tell all the truth, but tell it slant. She suggested this is the best way to reach readers without overwhelming them…and I’d argue it is the best approach for the writer herself. If you’re stuck on how to write about a topic, write around it.

So this morning, stuck on what to say about the Buddha’s footprint, which itself is a metaphor for the Buddha’s spiritual path, I left my laptop, took a walk, then returned to revise something I’d written earlier on a completely different topic. The only way to understand the Buddha’s footprint is on foot. The words will lead to words, and the way will show you the way.