In the February 15th 2001 issue if  The Writer Magazine, there was an article or interview with Ha Jin.  His advice to writers is this: “Persevere. You have to forget about commercial and social success. You have to sit at a desk and face a blank page.”

He also said that he learns the craft of writing by teaching a great story or poem. It’s something many teachers have said, including me.  If you want to get to the heart of  somehting and truly understand it–teach it to someone else.

And jumpinng to another topic entirely, let me offer this.  Last night I had a dream and in it someone asked me, What is your mission in life?  Not a bad thing to contemplate, so today I am donating time to answer this question. Why don’t you try to answer it too?  If nothing else, it’ll give us some insights we might not have pondered before.