A Kick-Ass New Year’s Eve Post

I woke up this morning thinking about the main character from the movie, Kick-Ass. An average young man wakes up and decides he is going to stand up for good against crime, despite having no superpowers or special talents at fighting. So he puts on a green suit, goes out and almost immediately gets stabbed by one set of thugs, then run over with a car by another criminal. His injuries put him in the hospital, but sever a nerve and enable him to feel no pain. So it’s not that he doesn’t hurt himself, but he doesn’t feel it. Because of this, he goes back to crimefighting, inspiring people by standing up for the innocent, etc. (And he gets a supercute superheroic girl to really do all the hard work for him. Just like a man! Just kidding.)

This story seems important to me because the hero’s lesson is not that he can escape suffering in his search for justice, but that he must embrace it as if it does not exist. It seems that is an important lesson for me too. We can’t be afraid of suffering; we must act as if it doesn’t matter. We can’t fear pain, or rejection: we must go out and do the things we do despite those injuries, despite our inborn fears of getting hurt.

Yesterday I read January’s post on creating a Poetry Action Plan – not anything I’d ever thought about, actually, though I have a pretty regular schedule of writing, submitting, and reading that I keep to – and this morning read Kelli’s post on successful artists. And I have to admit, I was afraid. Afraid everything wouldn’t go right – that I would keep having injuries and illnesses that would be prevent me from being the poetry superhero I want to be, that I wouldn’t have enough courage to ask for readings or reviews for my new book, etc. The past two years for me have been one long exercise in not being able to do the things I wanted to do – breathe (pneumonia,) walk (broken foot, sprained ankles), eat (ameoba, food allergies)…you know, the normal human stuff. On the other hand, this last year I also finished up a fourth book manuscript I am very proud of and had my second book accepted by Kitsune Books. I am ready to be fearless, to put on my super poet suit and walk out and fight for poetry without thinking about the pain. I need to embrace my inner Kick-Ass-self.

We moved back to Seattle in part because it is where we both feel the most at home. It is a place that honors bookstores, coffee, that embraces art and oddballs. Where they have a sci-fi museum and a poetry-only bookstore. Already, since we have been home, I have felt stronger, more embraced, fortified somehow. Part of this is because of the good friends I have here, the contacts with artists and poets I admire. I hope in the new year to make even more friends, to strengthen a connection to the communities I love, to help young people love poetry, to bring poetry to people who think they hate poetry.

I am wishing us all a 2011 of more health, more prosperity, more peace, more connection to each other. And not to fear pain, or rejection, or failure, but to act as if those things are not important, as if they cannot hurt us, to not allow those things to be obstacles in our paths.