I am a writer. But I am human first. I am a female, a woman, a spiritual soul who goes beyond all this world has said I should. Writing is my profession and only one dimension of me, a multi-dimensional creature with various thoughts and beliefs that transcend me, the writer–a small part of the goddess I am and will always be. I have no interest in being placed in a box that says I must believe this way or that based on my vocation. My vocation, although a great part of me, does not encompass my thinking in every respect. I have the privilege and inclination to think like a scientist, anthropologist, philosopher and any other school of thought that entices my senses.

As a philosopher, in particular, I have the privilege to share an array of ideas that speak to all I’ve learned and have meditated on over the course of my life. I am the philosopher goddess who has pondered the many questions of man and have conceptualized everything fire, water, air and earth—everything in space and time. I have the right and approval of the universe to break bread with it and share my thoughts with it, learn about it, sleep and dream with it to the benefit of my spiritual and intellectual growth. I am not singular in body or spirit, and certainly not in mind. I am greater than societal notions and idiosyncrasies. I am not the singularity of ideas that make up my race, creed, social hierarchy, economical status or generation—I am everything earth. I am bigger than the words I write or speak and the beliefs of my ancestry. I am them, in part, yes, but much more—I am a light in the dark and vast universe. I am stretching into infinity to search those places within that many fear to go. 

I believe in the power of everything external and internal—real and ethereal. And I believe that with every breath I take, I become this entity called Pittershawn that is uniquely me. I am a writer who believes in the power and strength of words. I am equally if not more so a thinker who believes that words also hold only the power we give them. I am a believer who knows that nothing is as it seems, but often vastly more complex than we might imagine. I am the multi-faceted creature that this grand universe created and I embrace my nuances, contradictions, truths, illusions…epiphanies—weakness and strengths.

I have no need to conform to a school of thought for the sake of social acceptance. I will leave that to the weak in mind and heart. I wish to be free. And true freedom comes from not feeling intimidated by being alone in one’s thoughts—alone to know one’s self—alone to be different from those who must conform to feel whole. I am free to believe and believe with conviction…with questions, doubts and ultimately, comfort. I am free.

You are probably wondering what impregnated me with these thoughts, revelations, convictions and subsequent unloading. Well, someone wrote to me, ‘how can you believe the things you do and you are a writer?’ This was pertaining to a particular subject on the use of certain words. I say to those who are writers, if you focus on only what many believe writers should believe or think about words, you may never be a great writer because you are limiting your realm of knowledge and inhibiting your critical thinking skills—you are confining yourselves to being one dimensional. And for those who are not writers, you may never grow to be great thinkers and rise above your intellectual threshold if you do not think beyond the limitations imposed on you by your upbringing, society, your peers and, especially, your fears.

I fearlessly defy the limitations of my vocation, while simultaneously embracing the beauty of its worth. I fearlessly defy the limitations of this society and its notions, while simultaneously praising the beauty inherent in every person and every thing. I fearlessly step into a life of freedom and belief in my power to be as great as the universe that gave birth to me.

I am a great energy that never truly dies. And knowing that allows me to recognize that my current mortality does not extinguish the me that is a part of the energy that forever unfolds throughout the cosmos. I am everything the universe is. And that simply means I have the privilege and blessing to think as wide and long and vast as there is space and time.

I have the power to know all, even as I humbly recognize how little I do know. As Octavia Butler wrote in her short story, The Book of Martha, “You see what your life has prepared you to see.” That written, I am prepared to see all the possibilities of this world—every thought, idea and creation to be loved and feared is mine to see or imagine. For me, this is what it means to move toward becoming a great writer. We must see everything. We cannot box ourselves into a notion that serves to confine our way of thinking and being. This, to me, is what it means—and takes—to move toward becoming a greater human being.

I embrace the me that houses the entire universe and all within it—every thought…every thing.