(More thoughts from 20 years ago.)
Writing is almost magical sometimes.
I find it interesting how a word captures, encapsulates, and solidifies a thought. By changing one word, or the punctuation, a sentence takes on a totally different cloak of meaning.
I am interested in transferring clarity of thought onto paper. How do some words or phrases illuminate a thought? How do others obscure the path to understanding? How does the mind find its way from turbid understanding to enriched enlightenment?
As the pen moves on the paper, a bit of my soul leaks out with the ink. Yet this leakage isn’t a soul-decreasing effect, but one that imprints that soul on the page for a permanent enlargement. These penned thoughts stick to the page and expand my soul at the same time.
Words, words, thoughts, concepts, words — mankind has been uttering these for millennia to communicate coarse or fine ideas to one another. Writing down what the voice has said strips off the visual and aural cues that were embedded in that conversation. These cues provide up to 93% of the overall understanding.
Writing is the hardest form of communication because of the loss of that 93%. Yet, great writing hardly seems to miss the loss.
My Passion
I have a passion for building character and leadership abilities in others. I know that character gets built by the practice of the characteristics of character. Being placed in circumstances that draw out good character traits accelerates the building process.
I have a passion for helping others understand simple or complex things. I want to understand them myself, and work out the underlying concepts and principles. Then communicate my findings in a simple, effective, and entertaining manner.
I do like to entertain. My casual conversations have an element of “look at me” in most of them. I tell stories to support or illustrate a point. I engage in parodies or puns to move understanding along.
At one time, I had a passion for experiencing many facets of life, many views of the landscape. But these passions have receded with age, exposure, and circumstances. I would like to climb out of the groove or rut and look around at what goes on once again. I’m tired of being tired and bored with each day that slips away.
I recognize that I only have 168 hours each week, and most of them just disappear. I haven’t become passionate about those lost hours yet.
My life will last another 25 or 30 years. I’m about 2/3 shot. What have I accomplished? What can I mark down as being proud of? How do I justify a day that passes in a haze of sitting, reading just anything, mundane chores that I have let get ahead of me?
I have to rekindle a passion for living, not existing. I can’t live to work or work to live. I need to integrate living and working to be one and the same. Live hard. Play hard. Work hard.
I want to explore passion. Not physical passion, but life passion. I need to stretch, be challenged, get tired through exertion, not inertia. My mind has become stagnant and unfocused. I can drift through a five minute period of time with focused thought, and be amazed at the randomness that passes for focus. My mental capacities have diminished. I want them back.
Writing can keep me focused, can make me think once again.
Yes!
What’s YOUR Passion?
