The Hubris of Writing

Hu-bris: excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance. (Dictionary.com)

I struggle with the notion that people would want to read what I have to write. When I think about it logically, putting aside all emotion, however, it makes sense. I have, am, and always will be, doing a lot of exploring. Which includes reading a lot of books on topics such as sustainability, living a good life, simplicity and how much is enough, etc. ad nauseam, and attempting to put my own synthesis of those ideas into practice. But I can never put emotion, as much as I like to consider myself a logical person, aside for long. I can't help but feel it is incredibly hubristic to think I have something to say that hasn't already been said many times.

However there have been a couple comments recently to convince me otherwise.

One was a general comment from a gal saying that for as many times she has talked about the need for less-energy-dependent lifestyles, she still finds some in her audience finally getting it for the first time. Her observation was that fundamental (not to be confused with fundamentalists!) messages not only bear repeating, but need to be repeated, since one never knows who might finally be ready to hear it.

The second comment came from a fellow I've never met. He read a summary of my off-grid plans on an internet forum and emailed me to ask if I planned to write a book. I scoffed, saying many books have been written, and try as I might, I've still read only a fraction of them! His next question rather startled me – how many written by single women? Uh... I could name only one. Many written by women, sure, but ones with partners to share the burdens and joys. Many written by single men, but single women? Hmm, maybe I do have a unique perspective worth sharing.

A third factor is that I already write a lot for my own use. I write things down to keep my brain clear. Lists are the most prevalent – the things I want to remember to do, lists of plans and ideas to help sort the wheat from the chaff, picking from lists of what I will work on when. Heck, a list of systems to achieve sustainably! I also journal, a sort of conversation with myself about what I'm doing and why, what results I had expected or hoped for (not always the same thing!) and what results actually resulted (is that a pun?). So in a sense, I started this book concept a long time ago.

So here I go, writing up sections on various concepts and experiments, and putting it out for public consumption. Who knows, maybe an actual printed bound book will result, and someone will discover that mistakes are normal, problems always arise, and things never go according to plan, and yet a satisfying and (hopefully!) sustainable life can still come about. And truthfully, that someone will be me, writing the book I wanted to read all along.