Get in the Arena with Us, or Get out of Our Way
Writing in times like these is not about perfection. It’s about bringing our whole humanity to the table.
When I submitted my first piece to the Medium publication Illumination, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve been a writer for a long time now, but each submission feels like it’s your first. Any writer who tells you differently is hiding something.
After a day or so, I checked on the post and saw a kind note attached that said, essentially, we’ll take this, but first do this and this.
In the world of writing and publishing, being given a second chance is rare. As writers, we quickly learn to follow submission guidelines to the letter or risk rejection. Format according to the publication standards or risk rejection. Write in the general tone and voice of the publication or risk rejection. There are so many ways to get rejected these days it truly is a wonder any of us stay at this work.
More often than not, we writers come to expect a “no response.”
And again, no matter how long you’ve been writing, that silence stings. And again, any writer who tells you differently is hiding something.
Writing is one of the most personal acts we can do—as I believe any artist will tell you. Writing comes straight from our soul, direct from our heart. For those of us brave (or crazy) enough to put ourselves out there time and again, the process of writing and sharing our thoughts can prove simultaneously rewarding and excruciating.
Regarding my first post: I made the suggested changes, and shortly after, my post was published. But more than that, a relationship had been created, one in which I now understand that my work does not have to be “perfect”—whatever that means—every single time. This is a relationship that features grace rather than strictness. If a post doesn’t work for whatever reason, I know I will at least know why and have an opportunity to adjust it.
This relationship with Illumination is still new for me, but it is different than any other relationship I’ve had with a publication.
Most often, to be a writer means to build up a lot of patience and resilience to hearing “no.” It is not unusual to have to wait six months or more to hear back (or to not hear back at all, which is even harder) on whether the editors even saw a piece that meant so much to us.
Whereas I had to scramble like crazy to find people to review my book last year, Jay Toran wrote one up for me without my asking. Whereas I had to pay a company to create a video introduction to my book, The Garrulous Glaswegian created one for me free of charge.
I’ve never before felt so seen and appreciated by a publication. It makes me want to become an even stronger writer. It makes me want to invite my friends to be a part of this family.
We writers hear it all the time: editors are crazy busy. They don’t have time to respond unless they want your piece. We should be grateful to even have the opportunity to take up a little space on their website.
It’s the school of hard knocks out there, that’s for sure.
Maybe that's the way writing and publishing have always been. But that doesn’t mean it’s the way it should be going forward.
Our world is changing and shifting at a breathtaking pace these days. We are being asked, as human beings, to integrate changes on all levels of our being like never before.
Never before have we addressed toxic masculinity, sexual assault, and abuse in workplaces to the level we have been in the wake of #Metoo.
Never before have we faced America’s “original sin”–racism—so square on.
Never before have the police been found accountable for the murder of a Black man, leading, hopefully, to a reshaping and reimagining of policing as a whole.
In the United States, we faced an insurrection—domestic terrorism—on January 6th that has still not been fully accounted for.
We just barely took the leadership of this country back from the clutches of fascism.
And never before have we humans faced a global pandemic (unless you were here in 1918 or before) and had to balance personal freedoms with societal responsibilities, or perhaps endured the loss of a loved one, a job, a small business, a way of life.
And we’re in all of this at the same time.
From a spiritual perspective, we are addressing and processing collective karma at unprecedented rates. We are deciding every day whether the way we were raised is the way we want to raise the next generation. We are in the midst of a global transformation, which always means we must transform along with it (or get dragged along kicking and screaming).
The fact that we, as souls, chose to be here for this period is quite remarkable. But we decided to be here because we believed we each could contribute to making a more diverse, more inclusive, and more accepting world.
We do this by building spaces in our neighborhoods and homes for inclusivity.
We do this by taking classes on racism and committing to being anti-racist.
We do this by addressing and naming our privileges, whatever they may be.
We do this by creating spaces for writers that do not ignore the writers who dare to have something to say about all the chaos we’re in and try to form it into something that makes sense. A place like Illumination.
As writers, we participate in this collective change through our writing. Not writing pieces that go on to sit in an inbox for six months, only to be glanced at and then sent to the trash bin. Pieces that are written for the moment, in the middle, in the mess.
Our timely pieces might not be perfect. They may not be written in perfect English or formatted to the specific desires of an editor. We might even forget to run our piece through a spell-checker because we were so excited to submit it, as I did.
They’re not perfect.
But they’re real. They come with feeling, and energy, and movement.
They speak from our place of fear and confusion while also trying to light a path for others to follow.
We’re all in the dark right now, navigating blindly. And our writing often reflects that.
This is not a time for perfection; it’s a time for reflection.
It’s not a time for criticizing others, but for connecting compassionately with each other.
It’s not a time for strict conditions and obsessed-over writing, but for authentic, raw, and honest personal stories and offerings from the heart.
Like Brené Brown said when I once saw her in person (and I’m paraphrasing): If you aren’t in the arena with me, getting your ass kicked every day, I don’t want to hear what you have to say about my work.
Exactly. Either get in the arena with the rest of us imperfect, raw, confused, and overwhelmed writers, or get out of our way. We have work to do, dreams to manifest, and a shit-ton of paradigms to reimagine and recreate.
Illumination and its editors are doing their part to fulfill that vision.
I’m glad to be a part of it.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz The Garrulous Glaswegian Terry L. Cooper Claire Kelly Britni Pepper Marcus Jay Toran
Keri Mangis
Award-Winning Author & Wholeness Advocate
Founder: KeriMangis.com
Interview on Illumination
Author: Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness — A Memoir of New Beginnings, winner of the 2020 IPA for Body, Mind and Spirit
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