Saying or Writing Things
“You really write beautifully,” people often tell me when they meet me and read my work. I appreciate the compliment without ego, but the phrase haunts me. I sink into doubt and ask myself: what does it really mean to write beautifully? Or what does it mean to speak beautifully? Perhaps we all want to hear beautiful things, and that’s why we repeat the phrase “writes beautifully.” But I know they mean speaking about reality assertively. Sometimes I think writing beautifully is simply the desire to hear something sweet despite all the ugly things we are enduring. It’s seeking words of encouragement that tell us the path always opens up, that even stones listen to us, that life goes on, and that each of us must do our part. We want to believe we are unique and indispensable beings for this planet and for coexistence. It’s a necessary balm. However, time passes and interrogates me harshly: where are the facts? Where are the actions? What use are harmonious words if we fail in how we behave towards our land, our city, our friends and neighbors, towards an entire people? What meaning does lyricism have when facing the passerby, the corner vendor, everyone who passes by us and whom we ignore? For me, writing beautifully is not adorning reality. It is overflowing with pure sentiment. It is wanting to tear out one’s soul to avoid being torn apart by so much rottenness, so much filth, by the selfishness, envy, and malice that human beings display daily. It is not hiding the dirt under a carpet of adjectives; it is denouncing with an open heart. I keep asking myself what it means to write beautifully if there is light and a path. Perhaps the answer is not on paper, but in action. Maybe writing beautifully is, in reality, thinking about taking the earth in your hands, sowing good seeds, and committing to harvesting good fruits. Therefore, I invite you, my reader, to pause. Let’s think carefully before speaking. Let’s ensure our words are not empty shells, but that our actions are consistent with the reality around us. We live in a society that increasingly demands ethics, decency, and above all, radical honesty in every action we perform daily. In the end, literature and life are reduced to two questions that we still haven’t fully answered, but which mark our path on this earth: who are the others, and who are we, truly, each of us? Speaking or writing beautifully, then, is trying to answer them with honesty and coherence. How are the candidates speaking, and what are their programs?
