WRITING TO THE ROOT

Ever notice how creative people seem to have distinctive looking hair? You can practically pick them out of a crowd.  It’s as though looking normal dulls the very statement of their craft, stifling their imaginative juices.  But is there something to having unique-looking locks when it comes to thinking outside the (dare I say) box?

Toni Morrison, author, professor, Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer Prize winner, is best known for her novels, Song of Solomon and Beloved.   For years, she’s sported her dreadlocks while pumping out successful works.  Morrison has been quoted as saying, “If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

Matthew Arnold, a British poet from the 1800s, had always been found either engrossed in some book or creating masterpieces of his own.  One of his poems, Dover Beach, proved both tantalizing and insightful: “The Sea of Faith was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.  But now I only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating, to the breath . . .”

An Accidental Affair, is New York Times best-selling author, Eric Jerome Dickey’s latest release.  The writer entices his readers with unmatched wit set to contemporary themes, and richly, relatable characters.  This is no surprise as the novelist, for a period, performed stand-up prior to his present gig. Other prevalent works by Dickey includes: Sister, Sister, Milk In My Coffee, Liars Game and Thieves’ Paradise. Behind his infectious smile, is anyone’s guess as to where the modern day Samson draws his true inspiration!

E=mc2, an equation for mass-energy equivalence, earned Albert Einstein big kudos around the country.  One could only imagine electrons shooting from his hair follicles, traveling through his fingertips and landing onto recorded pages for all to behold, for years to come. Other hypotheses by Einstein included the general theory of relativity, and gravitational fields.  Lucky for us mere “intelligent” individuals, he didn’t get along with authorities at a school where he was supposed to study electrical engineering.  In his judgment, it subdued creative thinking. Among many quotable quotes, he once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. . .”

Unless you have the right-shaped-head, don’t dare try to wear your haircut like Pearl Cleage, New York Times best-selling author, playwright and professor at Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia, is widely known for her novel, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day; a novel selected for Oprah’s book club in 1998.  Other works by the author includes: Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do, Babylon Sisters, and plays, Flyin’ West and Blues For An Alabama Sky.  Cleage’s writing is bold and often equated to that of a feministic feel.

Should aspiring writers redo their hair in order to make a statement? Is this where the freedom to create derives?   Or is the statement of hair simply an outward manifestation of  an inward liberty?  Whether your hair is short, long, knotted or bald, the level of your writing is, indubitably, judged by your talent and expertise.   The old cliché:  you can’t judge a book by its cover, still holds true, no matter how much it’s been driven into the ground.