The Pen, a Sword: Death & Life
The pen, without a doubt, is mightier than a sword — why else would we gun journalists and allow murderers to roam free?
My Hons degree in International Communications Studies with English Literature had convinced many of my south Asian relatives that I aspired to be a journalist. In reality, a part of me thought the same until the more exposure to how media organizations operate made me realize I too would have to comply with being a puppet in the whole dynamic of how the news is reported.
In desperate times of humanity switching off their TVs to take a scroll instead, we have the main sponsor, to bring you the time, and everything else they need you to know.
What is Truth?
Revolutionary.
So why then do we quiver to Prime Time News telling us what’s best for our bodies, what’s best for our society and what’s best for the environment.
In efforts to not participate in words of deception, I found myself steering away from journalism. However, fell not too far away. Here I found myself in dilemmas of having to choose between the truth and pay. I detested certain things, and rolled my eyes whilst I wrote words that garnered double clicks on Instagram, praise on Facebook and applause on LinkedIn.
The truth, if concealed, makes you sick. And I was constantly getting sick, first in the mind and then the body. Something had to be done, the pen was becoming a tool that I was using on autopilot.
The Lies
I had never imagined it to be a double-edged sword, and worse, it pierced through my body and then my mind. At night I couldn’t sleep, during the day I was too drained to stay awake. My body would give way, my mind would rage and my heart weighed more than my head.
Today, I was reminded that I was able to make a flower come to bloom, despite being given only soil, I hushed my raging thoughts for a moment to carefully compose music that was not perturbed by other noise — I am, after all, a Writer.
A mercenary, whose words can kill, a reader… and myself.
Upon this uncomfortable realisation caused by the truth -I had suppressed- , it should not come as a surprise in any way that I would choose to one day say no to pay, and ‘yes’ to the truth.
Life After Death
The pen is truly mightier than the sword, it cuts the invisible chains that confine us to life, as the ‘main sponsor’ says is best for us.
There is always a choice with the sword, to kill or let go.
There is always a choice with the truth, suppress or proclaim.
Either choice has its consequences, would you choose temporary praise and comfort or discomfort and freedom?