There is an astronomical amount of writing churned out each day. The reasons for this are many. It could be for profit, spread political views, personal ego, spreading philosophical ideas, announcing scientific or other discoveries and the list goes on. Like many writers, I also have a little ego. I like seeing my creations in print, like many artists want people to see their works. I don’t have many people reading my work, but the mere fact there are more than a year ago feeds me a little. I also enjoy the challenge of writing something that makes sense, even if only to me. News Flash: I am human.
I write to solidify and structure ideas. It is an efficiency tool. It helps me move on. It prepares me for the next step in life. Thinking through ideas is like bees on a cluster of enticing flowers. You see them buzzing around, but the thought that the swarm of bees is constantly changing doesn’t occur. Bees come and bees go. The swarm is thought of as a single object, which it’s not. The same holds true when trying to think about a subject that may have some complexity to it. Little ideas come and they go. Some of them may have been a good contribution to the solution, but one can only hold so many ideas captive at one time. We think we have control over this, but it is extremely limited. I have read the human mind has 50,000 random thoughts a day. They are flying around like ping pong balls in a lottery drum. Writing down ideas “freezes” them and makes them a permanent part of the concept you are trying to evolve. New ideas can be added to the mix and the totality can be evaluated to see if it makes sense. Incongruent ideas can be discarded. This little essay is self-describing. All of these thoughts didn’t come at once. I put a seed down on paper and the concept grows over time. It may be 20 minutes or two days. It doesn’t matter.
Another thing about writing: it frees me from having to retain things. If I know it’s written down somewhere, I no longer have to worry about remembering it. Writing is a destresser. Writing creates freedom. Writing communicates my thoughts to others. Another thing about writing: recently I started writing poetry. It accesses parts of my brain I didn’t have access to before. When I read some of the things I have written, I am in wonder, not because I believe it is great but because I almost don’t recognize myself in it. With some of my poetry, I can point to specific triggering events. I believe it is changing me and the direction I am taking makes me feel better about myself. There is much writing about self-improvement and one of the things mentioned often is keeping a journal. My writing, both essays and poetry, is my form of journaling. I really intend to keep writing for a long time.
Pete's Wisdom 