A Bright Light

I watched a couple documentaries recently about treasure hunters, an interesting and very resourceful group of people. I enjoyed seeing how they pieced together what few clues they had to narrow their search, as well as their unrelenting passion for what could only be described as a quest. Watching them stirred my old childhood love of fantasy literature, where the heroes were always sent on an important journey into the primal and mysterious wilderness. That’s where you’re tested, and where valuable secrets lie buried in an ancient world as alive as any city, yet whose relentless growth requires neither gold nor ambition, only time.

I felt a kinship with these people, for their nerdy obsession best shared with other treasure hunters, as well as the energy and focus they drew from their search. They spent a lot of time not finding what they sought; some would never find it at all. However, one young man revealed he’d been addicted to drugs until he’d begun looking for a chest of gold buried in the Rocky Mountains by an eccentric millionaire. He never uncovered the gold, but he got clean.

His was a particularly satisfying arc, though it had its painful moments. More than once he was absolutely certain, why, he could just feel in his gut that he and his brother and father were only days away from success. I recognized the dreamy, hopeful, earnest tone in his voice. How many times had I convinced myself I knew that something big and bright and life-changing was imminent? The wilderness, after all, is an endless unknown. How soothing certainty can feel, even when it’s only imagined.

However, sobriety or a completed manuscript does not come without some kind of authentic certainty. Once you find it, it’s with you always. You know without question when you’re interested, when you care, when you’re excited, when you climb from your bed each morning with enthusiasm. If there’s anything better, I haven’t discovered it. Gold is beautiful, but alive curiosity is a bright light, revealing in its illumination a life only you can live.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com