I try to write something every day, so my heart jumps with excitement when the house quiets down and the infernal telemarketers stop harassing me!! Most days I turn off the phone in order to complete the required work for my full-time employer, but their evening calls still continue. It’s getting to where my phone is turned off most of the time.
I’ve drawn a line in the sand when it comes to what I’ll write for business, and phone pests are on the wrong side, along with certain industries. They’ve already ruined the quality of our lives.
Obviously, I’m not always angry. No one can live that way. Yet I’m more and more dismayed at many events happening in the world. Often I have to start writing on any sheet of paper I can find before I can get to the PC. I don’t want to lose those thoughts, even though I know I’ll tone them down later. If I didn’t pour my rage and pain and sadness onto the page, I’d go out in my husband’s thick socks and hobnailed boots and stomp somebody, anybody, to a pulp.
I discovered the excitement of writing as a young child. But I was a young adult before I realized the power of words. I’m not power-hungry by any means. After all, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. (Usually attributed to Lord Acton but not entirely original with him.) But the more I kept reading in my young years, the more it came to me that words can change everything in a person’s life.
Once a person can read, no matter how advanced in years when they learn, possibilities rain down on them. Yet someone like myself, or a better person, puts those words in front of them! I feel good knowing I can bring joy and escape to people, as well as understanding.
The power of words terrifies dictators and other despicable leaders, of which we have many. The first people they silence are the writers and artists because both reveal what is really going on in their culture. Scholars are next if they’ve spent their lives researching and teaching instead of publishing (which would have put them into the first group to be squelched). Some well-known institutions still purge scholars who drag unpopular secrets out into the light of day.
The one area of writing I haven’t yet done well is to write a journal. I haven’t kept one on a regular basis, partly because there has been no privacy. If anyone had found what I had written, my life would have been in jeopardy. If anyone ever does want to know what my life was like, perhaps they’ll think to search the Internet. At least my recent blog posts are there!
Writing is something I can always do, even if I’m away from my computer. I just need a couple of ballpoint pens and a notebook small enough to tuck in a pocket or purse but not so skinflint with the pages that I run out of space before I can hurry home. Try that approach yourself. Writing makes life worth living for many of us!