What the bathroom mirror knows

"How close they are, love and hate. We are no less bound by one than the other."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Scarlet Letter

Josh told me at our first conference that I could write about other things besides, 1) childhood memories, 2) how the weather made me fell, or 3) relationships. For example, taking soil cores, he offered, after I explained that I was a biology major. Maybe I'm missing something, but taking soil cores may quite possibly be the most passionless endeavor I have ever undertaken in my short life. My entire existence is consumed by infatuations, addictions, the intricacies of relationships, and love, love, love! Love, however unrequited. Isn't everyone's? What do you brood alone at night? What do you intimate only to the bathroom mirror? And what is the substance of your every absent minded daydream? Love you answer? Or want of? Or hurt from? Yes! How could anyone answer any differently.

I don't think love is a necessary component of all writing, but it is necessary of all good writing. We write about things we're passionate about. Even when we write hate, we love something else - all the greater.