(no subject)
I ask my students to write daily. Two-hundred words.
The rationale is explored by Goldberg in her Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, and by scholars and writing advocates before her.
I use an exercise metaphor.
One exercises daily. This maintains fitness. One does not take three years off, then train for the Olympics only in the weeks before.
It seems facile, yes, but
The students who cram in seventeen, thirty entries into a weekend!
What quality I see!
Why write?
1. Articulation. Being unable to express one’s self fully has been linked to physical illness. Can’t communicate your condition, and “the organism takes a flight into illness.” Or one lashes out.
Writing is the practice of articulation - if you make it so.
2. The memory fades. Details that burn in you today, that you can’t believe you’ll ever forget…
…they’ll go.
Or they’ll shift subtly away from the truth.
Journaling might preserve memory - should you be diligent and unflinching - and, when you gain more perspective and insight, might be a portal to revisit the accurate record of the past with a keener eye.
Your mind will return to the past; will the past remain accurate in the mind?
The journal as a record.
3. Is there a loved one who may, one day, wish to know your mind?
If you were able to read the thoughts of your predecessors, would you do so? Is it possible that your journal will be a portal into your mind for your son or daughter?
“But I don’t have a child.” Fool! Look ahead.
Would you want that child to look at your Myspace? Does that represent the depth and quality of your existence?
I put these entries into a folder, and burn then to disc, and, should I pass, my daughter might be able to know my mind.
And yes, I get about two-hundred a day.
Most of it you just never see.
The rationale is explored by Goldberg in her Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, and by scholars and writing advocates before her.
I use an exercise metaphor.
One exercises daily. This maintains fitness. One does not take three years off, then train for the Olympics only in the weeks before.
It seems facile, yes, but
The students who cram in seventeen, thirty entries into a weekend!
What quality I see!
Why write?
1. Articulation. Being unable to express one’s self fully has been linked to physical illness. Can’t communicate your condition, and “the organism takes a flight into illness.” Or one lashes out.
Writing is the practice of articulation - if you make it so.
2. The memory fades. Details that burn in you today, that you can’t believe you’ll ever forget…
…they’ll go.
Or they’ll shift subtly away from the truth.
Journaling might preserve memory - should you be diligent and unflinching - and, when you gain more perspective and insight, might be a portal to revisit the accurate record of the past with a keener eye.
Your mind will return to the past; will the past remain accurate in the mind?
The journal as a record.
3. Is there a loved one who may, one day, wish to know your mind?
If you were able to read the thoughts of your predecessors, would you do so? Is it possible that your journal will be a portal into your mind for your son or daughter?
“But I don’t have a child.” Fool! Look ahead.
Would you want that child to look at your Myspace? Does that represent the depth and quality of your existence?
I put these entries into a folder, and burn then to disc, and, should I pass, my daughter might be able to know my mind.
And yes, I get about two-hundred a day.
Most of it you just never see.