On hesitation

I have a perennial fear when I write - that I don't know enough to do the subject justice. That there's so much more I have to learn and understand. This fear keeps me from writing so often, it's infuriating.

A passage I just read - about mountain trekking in Lapland! - illuminated the block for me:

A trip like this is always unfinished. It cries out for continuation. When this is denied us, we at times attempt to conquer time and forgetfullness by nailing down experiences in words that crumble under pressure. I realise that what I have recounted can scarcely reach - or be understood by - anyone who has not lived its like. But it is for them - and for myself - that I write.

-- Max Ström, Swedish Wilderness: The Mountain World of Dag Hammarskjöld

And this, from Christopher Okigbo, Nigerian poet killed in 1967 in the Biafran War, reminded me why it's important to keep trying, and falling short:

We carry in our worlds that flourish
Our worlds that have failed....
-- Christopher Okigbo, Silences