Monday, August 31, 2015

Why I Write

"I write entirely to find out what I am thinking," says Joan Didion.

Me too. Until it's out there I really don't know what I am thinking.

I write to explore what I am thinking. To pursue it, to criticize it, to pass beyond it.

I write to think about what others are thinking.  I want to absorb it like water to the veins; devour it like food to the flesh; inhale it like air to the lungs, and like oxygen to the brain.

Le style, c'est l'homme. Every time I read a good book I integrate the author's style and thus the author's person into my self and style. And so I write.

But should every thought be published?

No, but writing is the act of publishing if only to one other self. When I write I always have someone else in mind. I am that someone else made up of all the persons I have known whether in the flesh or in their art.

Other persons whom I encounter do not exist outside of me. They become me. The helix that I am, once double, then triple, is multiple and winds towards infinity. I only write for me but I am everyone I have ever met and yet to meet.
___________

I like to write because I like to think.

I like to ski in the Colorado mountains.
I like to kayak on the San Joaquin River.
I like to jog and run on trails and city streets.
I like to bike on the C&O canal trail.
I like to drink and eat with family and friends.
I like to hike in the Appalachian wilderness.
I like to walk in downtown Chicago or Paris.
I like to exchange hellos with passerbys.
I like to go to places I never went before.
I like to listen to U street jazz.
I like to experience dance and drama.
I like to learn in classroom and lecture hall.
I like to engage with others finding their power.
I like to be naked with my lover.
I like to feel the breeze and sun on my body.
I like to laugh and be with laughter.
I like to be in deep conversation with colleagues.
I like to text with my daughter and converse with my son.
I like to read satire, mysteries, and philosophy.
I like to play with grandchildren.

And I like to play with ideas. The delight of thinking, Nietzsche says.
And so I write.

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