Why have we allowed writing to become nothing more than an assignment? Do we have nothing to say? To we think that our words our not important enough for others to read them?I believe that we should take out our pens, pencils, and laptops to just write. Write poetry, short stories, and novels. Express ourselves with incomplete sentences, page long paragraphs, and Spanglish. Whether it be in a private journal or a public blog we need to make the time to just write. We cannot allow our professors and school administrators to control what we write about and when we write it. We need to use our autonomy to express our unique perspectives in our unique voices.
In writing we enter into community without loosing our individuality. With words we can change our realities. With words we can change the world. These are my thoughts; what are yours?
Para la liberación,
Mateo
3 comments:
Ahh Matt you make me feel guilty becuase I know you are right.
Writing is a beautiful and valid way of self-expression, one that I push myself to do. With that said, we do not "need" to write. For most of human history and in many societies today, knowledge, wisdom, humor, faith... these were and are passed down through the spoken word. For many, our unique voice is best heard not through a sheet of paper, not through a computer screen, but through our voices, through our facial expressions, our voices cracking as we become emotional, our voices trembling with passion. Part of liberation can come from writing freely, but it can also come from choosing to not write, and instead to speak.
Rod you are right. The writing is just one of many means by which humans express themselves.
The only problem with the purely spoken word is that it leaves no accurate record. Records are the reasons that Greek, Hebrew, Arab, and Chinese culture have had such a multi-generational, worldwide impact. Lack of records is the same reason that so may cultures have been lost. Writing means the survival of cultures and ideas. We have spoken many times of the languages and cultures that are being eaten up by those of the empires. If these are restricted to the spoken word than they will be forgotten. When it comes to sharing/passing down “knowledge, wisdom, humor, faith...” the written word means survival. Records can be shared and copied. Spoken words can only be remembered and passed down to the best of the middle-person’s abilities.
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