If you’ve ever wondered what writers write about when they don’t know what to write about, that incident might give you a clue.
We retreat into the commonplace world, the world we actually know about from personal experience, and hope to connect with larger events.
The problem is not having nothing to write about. The problem is having too much to write about.
Take this last week, for example.
Boatloads of refugees get sent back to sea in the Mediterranean, by nations unwilling to assume responsibility for disasters that they didn’t create, while the nations that caused the problems stay a comfortable distance away.
Volcanoes demonstrate that they can have different personalities. The one in Hawaii is relatively benign – dangerous, but not explosive. The one in Guatemala erupts explosively, searing its victims in hot ash and gases. The one in Washington… well, enough said.
The G-7 summit in Quebec, that became the G-6 summit after Russia got kicked out, became the G-5 summit when everyone was out of step except one man.
And then the world’s two most unpredictable national leaders met in Singapore, to hatch a vague commitment to make the world safer.