Deadly Weapons

My good intentions are completely lethal.
-- Margaret Atwood

There is no more deadly weapon than the kindness of friends and family. In kindness they give us advice or warn us or try to make us feel that we are making a mistake. More dreams have been killed by kindness of the well-intentioned than by the cruel critique of a stranger.
The dreams of the younger and the older are precious and lead us into the future with optimism. Sometimes just the turning of the head and an uplifted brow coupled with a smile that indicates tolerance for another flight of fancy is the hardest boundary to creativity.
The artist must be driven by only one muse and that is the one that resides in one’s heart and head that hears the warnings and suggestions of family and friends with an internal translation device and thus retains the ability to move on with the creative process.
When you think about what is the greatest book ever written, realize it hasn’t been written yet. It may be the one that has been hidden beneath the good intentions of friends and family to keep you from pursuing your dreams. There is no age limit on the creative process. If your dreams have been hiding from the kind intentions of family and friends who fear that you might succeed and change, perhaps it is time to draw a more deadly weapon and that is the pen. Write the first words of that great work that is waiting to be born from your heart and soul.