Me and Kels watched CODA.
Excellent film. Compelling. It won the 2022 Academy Award for Best Picture. Someday, when he’s older, I’ll watch it with Beau.
CODA is an acronym. It stands for Child Of Deaf Adults. The movie is about a girl from a Deaf family who wants to sing but lacks confidence. Her name is Ruby. She joins her high school choir, but when she’s asked to sing, she can’t. She runs out of class.
The kids snicker as the door closes behind her.
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The next day Ruby comes back to discuss what happened.
She’s alone with her teacher, Mr. V:
“Are you any good?” he says.
“I don’t know,” Ruby says.
“Why did you run out of my class?”
“I got scared.”
“Of what? Other kids?”
“Maybe. Or maybe finding out that I’m bad.”
Mr. V nods his head and takes a beat. “Do you know what Bowie said about Bob Dylan? A voice like sand and glue,” he says, referring to how people hear Dylan: nasally, scratchy, like sandpaper. But his message still comes through, and it’s beautiful to people, and meaningful to people.
“There are plenty of pretty voices with nothing to say,” says Mr. V. “Do you have something to say?”
“I think so.”
“Good,” he says. “Then I’ll see you in class… Bob.”
Writing pretty usually comes second to having something to say.
Writing pretty, with distinction, is important. But it’s not everything, especially not in the beginning. Because as long as you have something to say — value to add, knowledge to impart — you will be read, and you can build an audience, and make a difference.
Your style, your voice: these will come with time, effort, commitment, all the things you must do and sacrifice to learn a craft. It’s a process — and if you’re slogging through the beginning, or struggling somewhere in the middle, ask yourself:
“Do I have something to say?”
Do you?
Good. Then I’ll see you online… Bob.
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