It's worthless writing without YOU

Writing anything- such as poetry, plays, books, articles, and essays- without yourself being involved in some capacity is the closest place near the home of hypocrisy that you can get to. It is more like the next door neighbor to hypocrisy that can not sleep due the many noises filling its' community of lies. To write anything that is relevant to a reader, one has to first have it relate to it themselves. Their has to be some core correlations between yourself, your topic, and your reader, otherwise it is an absolute waste of time to write it.

This is why I have decided to move away from the noisy neighborhood of self-deceit, beyond the urban city of no understanding, and into the silently suburban countryside of self-awareness. It has given me a chance to recharge my responses to the many things I have experienced in life so far. It has also empowered the things I create , the chances I take, and the choices I make to be far more integrative with those roaming around this wild world we call home. It has lead me to believe that what I write about affects your experience on earth, and my responsibility as a writer is not to show you necessarily how it affects you, but that it indeed does affect you. 

The move I have made into the suburban state of self awareness has left me with many moments when I feel I have nothing to write. However, although I may feel that I have nothing to write, what my newly honest landscape leads me to see is a bit different. For the truth it reveals to me is not that I have nothing to write, but that I have nothing I really want or should write about. Yet oddly enough, despite this feeling of not having a particular paper, essay, or article that I should write, despite not having anything in mind that I really want to write, I still really want to write. Thus I am writing, and in doing so have come across a topic that naturally appeals to my interest, the idea of writing.

Understanding the origins of writing reveals something central in understanding the ideas of writing in itself. Yet the origins of writing are as mythical as they are historically factual. In ancient Egypt, writing was said to be invented by the god Thoth- the scribe and historian of the gods, as well as keeper and recorder of all knowledge. Ancients Egyptians believe that immorality was gained if ones name was inscribed onto something. The ancients Egyptians may have been on to something. For how long ago was it that people such as Socrates, Confucius, and Jesus Christ roamed the earth, yet we speak and know of them still. These figures have gained a certain mutual level of immortality in the minds of mankind; immortality that can be largely traced back to the fact that their identity and ideas were written down to be both understood and applied in a present day experience.

In China, the Invention of writing is not attributed to a God but ancient sage by the name of Ts'ang Chieh. Ts'ang Chiehs' invention of writing served China -and still does- with a way for people to connect with both their ancestors and gods. This is also apparent in writing today. We understand so much about our individual heritages from that which has been written about it. A friend of mine was telling me about a journal she had found the other day that her Dad and Grampa had written about her. By seeing herself in the eyes of those before her, she was able to find a strong sense of identity in who she was today.

This is what can happens through the process of writing. It can give us a means to travel the terrain of ourselves not only as a participate but as an observer. How enriching that experience is or isn't depends on the how the pen is lead. So like your life, may you lead your pen wisely, honestly, passionately, and purposefully.

The Movement Continues...

- Rhetorical Artz