Inspiration, Re-Ignition, Now What?

I absolutely love having my passion re-ignited. By that, I mean seeing, reading or hearing something that inspires and motivates me or reaffirms what I believe in, and my reasons for believing.

Often when I have my passion re-ignited, it involves writing about which ever topic. I find writing to be such a relaxing yet power instilling art form since it enables me to record my thoughts at these times and create written images which may potentially, or hopefully, reach people and in turn, inspire them.

Yesterday I read the first article in my Creative Writing textbook (essential reading for my uni course). It was a segment of a chapter from a book by Margaret Atwood. In it, she listed the many motives of writers to do just that.

The motives that particularly caught my attention (most probably because they are the primary ones that apply to me) were: 'To defend a minority group or oppressed class', 'to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves', 'to expose appalling wrongs or atrocities' and, to be totally honest with you and myself, 'to make a name that would survive death'; after all, no one wants to be ignored or forgotten.

Of course, these are just a grain of rice in the big risotto of why people write.

I have to wonder whether it was fate or pure coincidence that later last night, I turned on the TV to the beginning of 'Jamie Saves Our Bacon'. As an animal welfare supporter, this seemed an amusing sequence of events to me; was someone trying to hint or tell me something? Prod me in a direction? I'm not really religious, but I have to admit that occasionally, random events or sequences of them, feel oddly more than coincidental. For those who don't know (if, by any chance, more than one person reads this), 'Jamie Saves Our Bacon' involved Jamie Oliver exposing some of the less-than-pleasant treatments and living conditions that many farmed pigs are exposed to (the show was based in the UK I think, but many other countries employ the same systems). It is definitely worth looking up.

So, now I want to do something about this, but what? I don't think it's fair to say that one person can't make a difference, however they want to do it. In fact, it's technically impossible for one person to NOT make a difference; just like a single finger on the water creates ripples, it takes one person to inspire others. Cliched and corny, yes, but also true.