Thoughts on not

I have been thinking about writing a story, but then I think not to. I have reasons that are hard to explain why I think I shouldn’t.

Protection: Not for myself but others. People’s actions or inactions affect people. I have affected others and others have affected me.

Change: People change. How they were, or I was, may or may not be the same. How horrible to be forever in print in one way. Even if names were changed, they would still remember—the Adventist circle is small and no one forgets the mistakes of others.

Expectations: To write a book to inspire others is to place oneself in the line of fire. I will have to live up to the story I’ve written—live up to how things started. I already feel the pressures of other expectations and am afraid of more.

The past is not always the present. Nor is the present always the past. But mostly what I think of is the idea of putting things into print that could hurt people. And maybe it wouldn’t even matter to them, but what if it did. I cannot easily step into that.