The "L" Word

Photo: Bernie Mac

I really enjoy Tavis Smiley. It comes on late at night on PBS. The other night Tavis had Bernie Mac on his show. Tavis told Bernie that Bernie was the only entertainer who'd ever spoken of his work as being inspired by love. Bernie told the story of being a little boy and sitting on his mother's lap. His mother was dying, of cancer, I think. Bernie asked his mother why she was crying. Then, Bernie said, Bill Cosby came on The Ed Sullivan Show. As Cosby did his act, Bernie's mother began to laugh. Her laughter and her tears mixed together. Bernie said he told his mother then that he wanted to be a comedian because he wanted to find a way to stop his mother's tears.

I wanted to write this story down before I forgot it because, it seems to me, that writers have similar stories about why they write. I remember doing newsletters to entertain my friends. I wrote countless notes and letters to family and friends. I had pen-pals from France, India, Hong Kong, and South Africa. I enjoyed doing presentations in school, especially after I had my whole sixth grade class in stitches after telling a joke and then pretending to be afraid. My teacher had tears streaming down her face, she laughed so hard. It was a wonderful feeling to bring the class together in laughter. There were so many differences among us, race (schools had just been desegregated the year before) and physical maturity (some of us were still children while others were becoming adolescents).

The thought of giving pleasure to people through my writing was what drove me to create all the way through junior high school. I think the same is true now, although my reasons for writing are varied and complex. But, yes, love is definitely a big factor.

I feel that people are reluctant to reveal that their art comes out of love. The "L" word isn't very scholarly. And it's hard to write an argumentative essay about love. The "L" word is kind of a dirty word in academia because it doesn't fit into any theory of art whatsoever. Yet e.e. cummings, quoting Rilke in his famous "Non Lectures," said art comes from love.