Writing About Life as Though It Matters

I read a lot of blogs. Somewhere around the time I first got pregnant with Benjamin, I got hooked on a few of them and have been reading them ever since. About 3 years ago, around the time we were starting to look seriously at moving back to AR, I happened on a blog that I read and immediately loved. Although it doesn't appear to be live anymore, it was titled "Notes to Self" and was written by a lady named Kyran Pittman. The first post I read was enough to have me hooked; she was lyrical, interesting, and a just a damn good writer. Her blog posts were more than just a recount of what happened in her day; they were closer to poetry than prose. And always immensely enjoyable.

What was even cooler? She lives in Little Rock (which I didn't realize at first), so I started recognizing references and locations, and was just completely thrilled to find the blog. I love good writing; it is so amazing to me what some people can do with the written word. This was (and still is) really good writing.

I've followed her blog for the last 3 years, and she recently shifted domains to http://www.plantingdandelions.com/ after her book of essays was published this spring. I read one of the reviews a few days ago, and a comment in the review stood out to me. The article, found in the Globe and Mail, was generally favorable, but the article's author made the following comment:  "Pittman is an excellent writer with a strong narrative voice who writes about her life as if it matters."

Wait.

As if it matters? What??? I mean, maybe it's a little presumptive to assume that my life matters, that her life matters, that anyone's life matters, but what, then, is the point? Pittman's topics focus on her life's journey from Canada to Arkansas (go figure, talk about culture shock!), and family and domestic matters. She stays home with her kids and squeezes in writing time between school and laundry and all the other myriad things the day holds. I have to wonder if the article's author would write the same thing about, say, essays by Michelle Obama? Or Hillary Clinton? Do their lives matter?

I'm always a little sensitive in this area, I suppose, and maybe that's why it jumped out at me. We teach our kiddos they can be anything they want to be. We want big things for our kids, and they in turn want big things for themselves. But you don't have to have a "big life" for it to matter. You don't have to reach thousands of people to make your impact, you don't have to do wondrous amazing things for your life to be important. But that so often seems to be assumed, and it just rubs me the wrong way.

I want my kiddos to be happy. I don't want them to feel like they have to do big, wonderful, amazing things to make their lives "matter". They are going to get that message enough other places, I try very hard to not make that my message to them.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's not up to anyone else to decide whether our lives matter. We each live our lives as best we can, and it is up to us to determine whether we are making our lives matter - not anyone else. And as long as we are meeting the criteria and goals we set for ourselves, that should be enough. Regardless of your vocation or "importance" in the world at large.