Spineless words.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt 6

“The shortest answer is doing the thing” –Ernest Hemingway
We’re all a bunch of talk. We jabber on endlessly in some misguided attempt to impress our peers, to gain their sympathy, or to fill what was previously a blissful void of silence. Our words are nothing. We talk about our past and we expect people to care. We expect them to somehow empathize with us, despite the fact that they can never really understand it. We talk about our futures and how insufferably bright they’re going to be and we expect our listeners to respond with bated enthusiasm. As if our vapid soliloquies could possibly impress anyone but the most uninteresting individuals.
It is not words that garner us the attention that we so crave, it is action. Admiration flocks to action like moths to a torch. We put the doers on a pedestal. In an unending sea of consumers, we idolize the makers. It is the pioneers, the movers, the shakers and the creators that define this world. You can talk out of your ass all day about how you’re going to write the next great american novel, or how your going to become a wealthy businessman, but until you enact on those words, that’s all they’ll ever be. 
We need our words, yes, but without the sword, the pen lies uselessly on the ground. Action defines us. We are not who we are in our minds. Our thoughts do not define us nor do our words. We are what we do, and without a conviction of action we are nothing more than a bunch of talk.