Agape - Why I Write Despite 200+ New York Times Op-Ed Rejections

Agape means universal love in Greek. It is the highest form of love—of God’s love for man, and man’s love for God. I want readers to view my New York Times Op ed submissions as the selfless projections of unconditional love I want to see more of in the world. Or, am I using agape as a clever way to offer readers unsolicited advice? My wife thinks silence is scarce and rare and wants me to deliberately keep myself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. She has repeatedly asked me to be quiet since silence is the respite of the confident and the strong. She believes it is well intended fools like me, who haven’t embraced our insignificance instead of happily sitting alone quietly, in our rooms. Mrs Franco’s perspective helps to bring home a general insight, those who think like me are tempted to leave our rooms and crave excitement by creating content on social media that in the past may’ve turned out badly. She believes I’ve meddled in the life of others but failed to help them. She tells me I’ve inadvertently sought fame through my writing and instead, I’m often misunderstood by a large number of people who don’t even know me.

My wife’s constructive criticism hasn’t silenced me. Her shared wisdom affords me an opportunity to write with more consciousness. I believe all good content must be accountable, transparent and surrender to each individual’s reality. Far too many people set themselves up for defeat because they’re unwilling to acknowledge the destructive side of their being. Opting instead to utilize coping mechanisms instead of chasing the difficult task of surrendering and objectively seeing yourself.

Since 2016, just about every Sunday, I’ve submitted an op-ed to the New York Times. None have been published. In 2018 - I took it personal and stopped writing for 8 or 9 Sundays. I only returned to submit my op ed articles, once I realized how much I missed this therapeutic exercise.
Writing, as it turns out, is my reward - it helps me to advocate for freedom of thought and enables me to imagine more thoughtful and empathetic freedom of speech.

If most of us slowed down to think things through and kept things simple - more Americans would see that everyone of us begins life by being born – and all of us will eventually die. These two dates, (one behind us, one awaits) are determined and unavoidable: our lives are not endless, they begin and they come to an end. So, why have so many of today’s news and media outlets have mostly concentrated their attention only on death or fear mongering? When so little has been said about being born and how it shapes our existence.

In all fairness to the New York Times, the most likely reason none of my “woke” submissions have been published is that no clear solution presents itself just by being “woke”. Also, there is no sustainable (altruistic) business model for news organizations to encourage people to continually self reflect. News outlets have to exploit the fact that small and hidden is the door that leads inward and the entrance is blocked by countless prejudices, mistaken assumptions and fear of their audience/subscribers. Despite our inability to create an altruistic media, I believe with greater consciousness, we can heal the splits in our mind between what’s conscious and unconscious, bringing more of us to wholeness in our psyche.

Jose Franco is a self anointed Brooklyn "Public Intellectual"