(This Photo, “Storyteller” Is For Sale. $125. Fine Art Print, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 100 per cent cotton acid free paper, archival ink, signed, unframed. On Maria’s Etsy Shop Wednesday, or e-mail: [email protected])

If you have had your identity taken from you, then identity matters.  It will always matter.

Identity is something I think about all of the time. One of the reasons I have fought back so hard against people who refuse to let me make my own decisions and  mistakes or who try to tell me what to write is my sensitivity about identity.

I’ve never been able to properly explain my need to make my own decisions, and find my own way. It is because I lost my way and could not make good decisions for so many years. We crazy people are often lucky, we get to recover every day, I am getting stronger all the time.

How does one grow in confidence and reasoning when thousands of people are telling him or her what to do? Thoreau would have hung himself in Walden Pond.

I see this presumption as taking my identity away, blocking off my own search to  be a fully realized human being who can make my own decisions. And yes, I know they are well-meaning. And no, I can’t say that really matters.The road to hell…..

I’ve  written 25 (soon 26 ) books and I never stop thinking about identity or writing about it.

I have always identified myself as a writer, or an author. Proud words for me. And I doubt I will ever be desensitized to the meaning of Identity, it is literally who I am. No one can take it from me.

I also have come to realize that I am a story-teller, deep down in my DNA, story telling is a huge part of me. The literati sniff at story telling, they think of it as a kind of carnival work. They say you can’t be both a writer and a story-teller, that the two things are very different.

I don’t think so.  I have never been loved by the literati, thank God I don’t have to deal with that. They don’t get to decide who I am either, that is for me to do.

A writer by dictionary definition is a person who uses written words in various styles and techniques to communicate ideas.  A story-teller is something quite different: he or she is defined as someone who conveys events in words, images or sounds.

Wikipedia says story telling describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, often with improvisation, theatrics, or embellishment. Crucial elements of story telling include plot, characters and narrative point of view.

Merriam-Webster defines writing as the act or process of one who writes, such as the act or art of forming visible letters and characters; letters or characters that serve as visible signs of ideas, words or symbols.

It is, in fact, possible to be a writer and a story-teller.

I know, because I am both. Many of the pieces I wrote on my blog are stories – of my life, Maria, donkeys, dogs and the people I meet, and the struggles I  face. I do use improvisation and minimal but occasional embellishment. I took a creative writing course with the famed John Updike, he said the writer’s job is to embellish stories a bit when necessary, never let a bad or dull story stand if you can brush it up a bit.

I also use my photography, videos and voice software  to tell stories, and that is important, because one cliche is very true: photographs can’t lie, not even in the age of Photoshop (which I have never used.)

The writer and story-teller have powerful new tools to shape their work, and the old lines and boundaries have been pretty much obliterated.

My photos give authenticity to my words and stories, I make sure that people can see for themselves almost everything that I write about. I believe that has been  essential to my blog’s success. Over the years, my pictures have become as important as my words. Some of them are even beginning to sell.

I also believe in Tom Wolfe’s idea about truth.

Truth isn’t always completely literal, you must be honest and authentic in the aggregate, you must not be  self-serving or dishonest, you must accept and acknowledge the worst parts of yourself. You can also be creative and inventive in work and stories.

My blog is a story teller’s blog as well as a writer’s blog.

I use writing to talk about ideas and the important passages of my life.

I use story telling to describe my life on Bedlam Farm with Maria and the animals. I might touch up a tale once in a while, but I never lie, at least knowingly. And I believe salvation comes from never lying to yourself.

The person you read here and in my books (hopefully) is the real me, when people meet me, they are not surprised. They know what to expect, and for me, that is the highest compliment a writer or story-teller can receive.