Despite the ravages brought on by rap music and similar verbal garbage, we have no shortage of people who express themselves well in writing. Recycled clichés, dead-on metaphors and the snappy one-liner will always be with us. Beyond this, I would go so far as to say there are countless people who aspire to write about meaningful things. The clincher is that we have a shortage of sufficiently meaningful people.
In a sea of aspiring philosophers, few can row. Why? We can only write what we’re truly acquainted with. A threadbare author’s thoughts inevitably surface, and no amount of verbal drapery can hide the shortfall.
As Flannery O’Connor said, “I write to see how much I know.” For me, the answer is usually “Not much.” But I write in the hope that I’ll someday know enough, or become human enough, in the Christ-centric sense of the word, to say meaningful things. Does one reach this place of clear-eyed insight through trial and error, starts and stops, miscues and disappointments? A guy can hope.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
The Trouble With Writing
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5 comments:
You've got a memorable way of putting things, Roy! Nice analogy. I wonder if I'm "pre" or "post" that shot in the stomach...
But...that "mid-life crisis" could well be that very shot in the stomach. ;)
I write music to see how much I know. And like you, I discover...not much. Sure, I've been "shot in the stomach" a few times, but I don't know my chords or riffs well enough!
Howard Shore makes me cry.....
I think everybody has something to say, they just don't know how to articulate it, or haven't examined their life enough to know what it is. Sure, some people have lives that aren't worth the trouble of drawing anything significant out of to hold up to the masses; but just about everyone, if given opportunity, time, and most important, the right heart, will be able to touch someone else's life in a significant way. God designed us this way: to live in community and affect each other, to be an influence and to be influenced (both by God, and by other people).
I love your point about community, N. A dimension of community as the New Testament describes it would be this sharing of life experiences in an "organic" way--more sharing lives, really--something everyone benefits from.
Writing is a creation, and the ability to create it truly beautiful.
Nice pic.
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