Friday September 2, 2022; 8:34 PM EDT
- Writing might be part of your job. Writing might help get you a better job or do a job better. Writers teach. Writers pickle something for later. You might get paid by the word. You might get feedback that will make your ideas stronger. Write to think clearly or to take ideas deeper than talking does. Stories serve up a great scoop of our common humanity. Writing gives glimpses that aren't easy to get any other way. You might surprise yourself as you write. Here on Earth, amazing, beautiful, terrifying things happen, and somebody should bear witness, somebody should start the conversation. Writers can nudge the first domino. Writers can solidify community life. The world runs on grids of ideas and writing lets you play among the grids. People reading and writing slow down, and better thinking comes more readily. Writers perform those thought experiments too costly for real life. Writers carry out our necessary, uplifting, and stultifying indoctrinations, and they disrupt our weariest doctrines. Writers point out how alive it is possible to be. People need news from far times and far places. Writers overstate their case and leave us to make up our own damn minds. Writers show us what interesting can look like. Writers persevere, knowing that they can revise. Writers wake up the sleeping words. Writers stir themselves. Writers stir the world into a sauce or a broth or a stew. A writer's favorite spice is extravagance, favorite utensil is a long-handled two-pronged fork. Writers leave a trail of marks down the page that others in their hour of need might be able to follow. #