The reader knows best

I contributed a piece to the
Varuna Writers Centre newsletter on ageing and the emerging writer.  And find myself aghast at some of the
comments. 

It’s as if some people take
me literally.

And why shouldn’t they?  My words are all they have. 

And I wrote this piece on the
down side of ageing, more than I focused on its strengths. 

Still, I find myself wishing I
could qualify what I’ve written, when I know full well: once your writing is
out there, it’s no longer yours. 

It belongs to the reader and
given there are many different readers, your writing will evoke many different
responses and understandings.

So maybe, as Annah Faulkner writes in the comments, I should ‘put on [my] big girl panties and get on with it now’.