Using Writing To Think

I have often used my journal to figure out what I think about a certain matter or subject. Often, I will start to write about something and find out my opinion is different than what I thought it would be. Many writers have stated that they write to find out who they are and what they think about things and people.

Pat Conroy in his book, "The Reading Life", (Doubleday: 2010) states: "Good writing is the hardest form of thinking." I can concur on that. I have been writing on a daily basis for many years and it involves turning my thoughts into words and it is rarely satisfactory. It sounds so great, so steeped in wisdom and beauty once it is in the head and so mundane once it is on the computer screen or on paper.

Words are limiting and restricting in what they do to the thoughts. I am always reminded of the example of the word 'snow' and how the Eskimo people in Alaska have so many words to express snow and the English language have so few. When I first saw frost as a teenager in Southern California, all I could do was describe it as dew that is frozen on the ground and cars. I had no idea it was frost and was amazed when someone told me what it was. Another example for me is all the different hues of green of the trees. How do you describe the trees when there is a wind and they are all moving like a chorus of different textures and colors of green?

When you are saying things that are life changing or describing something incredibly important like the death of a parent or the love that you feel towards your child as he or she is being born, you have to put words together in sentences and make it mean what is in your heart and mind and that all depends on your word arsenal and your talents. You face the limitation of the language itself and your own ability to capture the magic.

Sometimes, it works. When you exercise those muscles that go into writing of mind and hands along with the heart and it flows with the spirit of the Tao, it flows freely and it full of the enchantment all magicians yearn for. It soars with the eagles, becomes the substances of rainbows and flies with the foam of waterfalls and in the clouds. Then you feel the extra amount of wizardry that writers feel now and then. It works best when you practice and practice every day and read the words of other writers.

Some writers write because they have stories to tell. I do that. But to be honest, I write because I cannot stop writing. I have to put my fingers on the keyboard or the pen on the paper. Even if no one else reads what I have written, I will still need to write. I also need to read no matter what it is that I am reading, I still need to read. For me, writing and reading is part of the same process. All of it is governed by the process of thinking. Writing and reading is thinking.

Pat Conroy looked at his world through his parents and family. I did not. I lived my life as an individual. I did not look for heroes although there are writers that I like very much, I have no need to see them up close and personal. I just want to read their words. When my sons were growing up, I saw many well-known people with my children and we met numerous ones. The most important reality is my own. I did not bond with any of my family but with books and music.

Conroy also uses novels and other kinds of writing to understand the world he lives in. I do that too. Conroy feels stories are paramount to everything else. Sometimes, I have found ideas to be important and have read novels which were written to express ideas. One of the most important elements in any story that I read is that I must like someone in the story. If I don't like anyone, I rarely stay with the story or book. The same goes for anything including movies. I need to think when I read so the writer must not do all of the work and I am a mindless and passive reader. It sounds too much like television which I don't much like. I want to wonder and question things and come to my own conclusions. PBS is a good example that has some programs that presents ideas and the audience must come up with their own judgments.

There is a lot of the world that I don't understand. That is a lot of motivation for me to keep writing. I like to think about what is happening around me and what it is that is really out there in the world and inside the inner world. I figure I have plenty of to write about. Every time I think I have reach a layer of understanding in my life, another layer is showing up underneath it and the whole process starts again.