Cherish The Common Bond

Jordy Nelson 

We are traveling this week. Sunday afternoon, we checked in at a hotel in Louisville, KY. Little did we know that a busload of people from Green Bay, WI had just arrived there, too. Ken and I are big Green Bay Packer fans for a couple of reasons.

One is Jordy Nelson, a top receiver for the Packers who is from a small farming community just north of where we live in Kansas. Jordy was a walk-on at Kansas State University and became a top player after being groomed by Coach Bill Snyder. On to the NFL where he has spent is career with the Packers. 

Ken played college football way back when at Valparaiso University in Indiana with another player who became a star player for the Green Bay and is in their Hall of Fame. Fuzzy Thurston was his name. Needless to say, when one of Ken's teammates made a great career there, my husband was going to be a fan for life. And, after we got married, I became a GB fan, as well.

After watching the Green Bay first half in our room, we ventured down to the lobby for a drink and fell right into Packerland! The whole busload of folks from northern Wisconsin were watching all the tv's in the lobby and breakfast room. We sat with them and Ken told them about our connection to the two celebrity players. We were soon one of the gang! We had a common bond. We all cared about the team and the players whether we had any other same interests or not.

It's the same as the bond that writers have with one another. We may write in myriad genres, at several different levels, and on every continent. Even so, we are a botherhood/sisterhood with strong ties. No one understands the writing world like another writer. 

Walk into a room filled with writers and say the word rejection and the groan will be collective. Say published and the smiles will be wide and lengthy.  Utter edit and deep sighs will emerge. Whisper first draft and watch all the heads nod. Every writer in the room knows what goes with each of those words. They have lived through it time and again. 

Every writer there will be able to relate to things like finding time to write, looking for story ideas, revising and editing over and over again and so much more. The common bond makes us care about one another. It lets us offer help when possible, a shoulder to cry on, another writer to celebrate victories with. And we don't even have to be in the same room. In our technological world, we can be in touch within seconds for that understanding and support we all crave. 

Like those Packer fans, we all have different ethnic heritages, various educational backgrounds, religions and political views. Doesn't matter when it comes to our writing world. We're a group who cares about one another. We cheer for the same things.

Cherish that common bond you have with other writers, nurture it and celebrate. Keep the bond strong.

One more thing--Green Bay won the game in overtime. There were a lot of happy people in the hotel lobby.