The Writer As Healer…

Friday, October 14, 2005

I recall the above because that conference was truly one of the most forceful reminders of the great and glorious power of writing. This morning as I sat and listened with rapt attention to the Nobel Peace Prize winner, freedom-fighter and now Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign affairs of the newly-created independent Timor-Leste (East Timor)-Jose Ramos-Horta as he spoke with fire and conviction I was once again reminded of Satendra’s notion of the artist as healer. Ramos-Horta said to us that beyond revenge it is *healing* which is necessary to make a nation and here everyone has to play a role.
What can we writers of this Asia-Pacific region do to heal the many wounds which people all around us have been experiencing –directly, indirectly or through remembered agony? Many of us are content to write about our own miseries in relationships, in careers, in not getting enough money for the extra bottle of wine or for the extra plate of salmon. I don’t mean to be sarcastic but I *am* concerned that so many around us do not want to engage with the fundamental issues and challenges which confront us, preferring the safer route of personal response/reflection. This is particularly true, I feel, across cultures; that is, as writers we do not address or feel the need to respond to issues, problems, challenges when these are of more immediate concern/interest to people outside of our own community/country. I believe the big challenge for the future is how to build an international community of fellow-feeling individuals who will be kind and compassionate across boundaries of ethnicity, religion, language, nationality. It is here that our role as *healers* is paramount, for everyday the world witnesses recklessness in terms of the many cruelties we continue to inflict upon each other. As writers we can assert our influence through a sustained framework of works designed to bring human beings closer together.
- © kirpal singh
October, 2005
singapore

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