Friday Feels #2: A Cave of Wonders
ONLY ONE MAY ENTER HERE, ONE WHOSE WORTH LIES FAR WITHIN.
Friday Feels is an excavation. I don’t know what we’re going to find, but I know I’ve been burying shit for a while. Mostly, I expect we’ll find parts of me (and you, too) that have changed and maybe become more valuable than when we buried them. I’ve mostly been burying shit that I didn’t know what to do with, and the first thing I think I’ve found is my voice.
Last week we started exploring this in 3 parts:
💎Uncovering Buried Treasure - a personal history
✨A Cave of Wonders - the variable tones of our writing voices
💎Distributing the Wealth - what we share, with who
"KNOW THIS: ONLY ONE MAY ENTER HERE, ONE WHOSE WORTH LIES FAR WITHIN. A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH."
Honestly, I wrote the titles for these three essays in a split second without working out the metaphor, and for a couple days now I’ve been thinking Am I really about to write an entire newsletter referencing Aladdin? The answer is yes. Yes, I am.
When I was a kid, I loved Aladdin. Sure, Princess Jasmine was the first Middle Eastern Princess, but I identified more with Al. Aladdin had a rough break, but he was surprisingly playful and good-natured in spite of his circumstance. His heart of gold was put to the test on several occassions, but entering the Cave of Wonders was a pivotal moment for Al. From the moment he set foot in the mouth of the giant sand lion he had to trust his mission: Touch nothing but the lamp!
I knew I wanted to write about tone, but at first, the metaphor in my mind was that all the variable tones of my voice were the treasures in the cave. Piles of gold, rubies, shiny glittery treasures - but then I realized no - all the treasured tones of my voice are the lamp. And Bitch let me tell you, I done been in the Cave of Wonders for a minute. For the last decade, I’ve been looking for a way to express all the things in me, and I think I finally found my “lamp”: I’m learning who I am, what I have to say, and how I want to say it. I’ve walked past the mounds of treasure. I’ve made friends with fun, useful creatures who wear tassels.
I’ve finally achieved my mission to let my voice ring out clear and unhindered. But we all know what happens once Aladdin finally grabs the lamp…