Why do I write?
I have been thinking of why I write though I don’t have much of an audience which is evident from the fact that all of my writing has got just two comments.
In the movie ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ the philosopher emperor Marcus Arelius becomes cognizant of the fact that he is nearing his death. His philosophical mind begins to ponder over what death would mean to him. Even after much contemplation he realizes that he is clueless. At this point because he is clueless about death, it seems to him that he is clueless about life as well.
His pragmatic self questions his philosophic self as to why his philosophic self has been pouring over so many things all his life even though, ultimately, it would all remain non-sense to his mind.
His philosophic mind pauses as it gets introspective and thinks as to why it has been doing what it has been doing…
Then it answers ‘…(I am a man)… what is man if he cannot read, think, talk and write…(about life)…’
When I heard that I agreed with reading, thinking and TALKING but I did not understand why writing was so special. I thought writing made little sense because I presumed it would just be a passive pouring out of the thinking already done.
But then I had not done much writing myself and presumed that writing was too passive a work to be enjoyable. In time, I started writing. It started with long emails in egroups and then went on to a deliberation of a few thoughts and then progressed to expressing my opinion on what was said by folks in movies or magazines…
I also discovered that when I started writing many thoughts began to ‘gel’ together and the very process of gelling was a pleasure in itself. That apart, writing was also a means of self-discovery, an act of ‘looking for me…’
Now as I look back, and think about my presumption that writing would be too passive to be pleasurable, I have only to laugh at myself for my naivety. Now I know why Marcus Arelius includes writing in the list that makes man a man.
I am a man, therefore I write. :)
In the movie ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ the philosopher emperor Marcus Arelius becomes cognizant of the fact that he is nearing his death. His philosophical mind begins to ponder over what death would mean to him. Even after much contemplation he realizes that he is clueless. At this point because he is clueless about death, it seems to him that he is clueless about life as well.
His pragmatic self questions his philosophic self as to why his philosophic self has been pouring over so many things all his life even though, ultimately, it would all remain non-sense to his mind.
His philosophic mind pauses as it gets introspective and thinks as to why it has been doing what it has been doing…
Then it answers ‘…(I am a man)… what is man if he cannot read, think, talk and write…(about life)…’
When I heard that I agreed with reading, thinking and TALKING but I did not understand why writing was so special. I thought writing made little sense because I presumed it would just be a passive pouring out of the thinking already done.
But then I had not done much writing myself and presumed that writing was too passive a work to be enjoyable. In time, I started writing. It started with long emails in egroups and then went on to a deliberation of a few thoughts and then progressed to expressing my opinion on what was said by folks in movies or magazines…
I also discovered that when I started writing many thoughts began to ‘gel’ together and the very process of gelling was a pleasure in itself. That apart, writing was also a means of self-discovery, an act of ‘looking for me…’
Now as I look back, and think about my presumption that writing would be too passive to be pleasurable, I have only to laugh at myself for my naivety. Now I know why Marcus Arelius includes writing in the list that makes man a man.
I am a man, therefore I write. :)