Experience Leech

Yesterday, I went to a reading by William Gibson, a well-known sci-fi author. In her speech, the lady who introduced him mentioned that Gibson is not a techy or anything like that, he learns the technical language he uses in his novels by hanging out with techies. When she said that, it hit me - writers are experience leeches. Artists are leeches. Even as she spoke, I was being a leech. I was sitting in my seat trying to figure out how I could fit Gibson's speech into a blog entry. I constantly wander through life looking for songs. I look at my experiences and other people's experiences. Once, a friend voiced concern that another friend was losing herself in a relationship. Now I have a half-finished song from the point of view of someone who's realized he's lost his individuality to his relationship. The key lines in the chorus - "All we got is we/I don't know how that got to be/But now all we got is we."

I am an experience leech, or even worse, an experience thief. That friend has no idea that her life was the inspiration for a song, and if she heard it, she'd have no idea it had anything to do with her. I asked no permission and gave no warning. Now that I think about it, I've been doing this since I first started creating. Around the time that I first started writing poems, I remember someone telling me that as a toddler she had been scared of death. It struck me as odd and interesting that a toddler would have the understanding and the forethought necessary to be able to fear death, so that became the subject of one of my earliest poems.

I guess this is my warning/disclaimer to everyone. Your life may become my art. By sharing any part of your life with me, you are implying your consent to have some part of your life experience to be featured in a song, poem, blog or other creative endeavor. Yes I know this is the sort of unfairly half-assed, obscure disclaimer that most people never read until it's way too late, but if it works for software companies, it'll work for me. And I'm not sorry. I'm grateful for every person, thing and event that provides inspiration, but I am not sorry for stealing your experiences and I don't care that I don't have permission.