Try To Understand
March 18, 2008“People don’t talk that way”
“No, but they think that way”
Well I talk that way, and I can write this way. You just have to be paying attention.
Kate Chopin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau wrote that way. It’s most unfortunate that by and large, no one seems to really understand what they were writing. They see only what they want to see, and then they rally behind it and use it to trumpet their own cause. People do that a lot.
The English language is a very inexact thing. It can’t quite properly convey what we’re thinking or feeling to others by itself. But those authors who can use common experiences, symbolism, and imagery to craft a true work of art can, if the reader is paying attention, speak as close to universal truth as is possible without the direct aid of God. You just have to listen to what’s being said.
I wish my own weak words could convey what I feel and what I think right now. Some day they might, if all goes well. Alas, I am no warrior-poet. I am no Shakespeare. I am no Chopin. But please, study these unworthy characters of mine. Try to understand.
We all want to be understood in this great search that is humanity. Sometimes we’re looking for the answer. Sometimes we have the answer. But sometimes, we just want the comfort of knowing that somewhere out there…someone else is searching too.
very interesting
One of the most wonderful things about writing, well life in general, is interpretation and that sense of mystery. A good writer must be able to write things that others can relate to but must be very…free with that ability. Once they craft a piece so that it can only have one interpretation, it kind of dies. Writers should focus more on writing for others rather than themselves. As a brilliant man once said, your words should be so thick and full of flesh that you could slice them open with a knife and watch the blood ooze out. Graphic, I know…but amazing? Most definately. It might not make sense without the rest of the talk, but that image is forever instilled in my mind and I think about it constantly every time I pick up a pencil to write something.
People don’t see only what they want to see, but what they have the ability to see at that certain point in time. If you read Walden again in five years, you will get something completely different out of it. That much I can guarantee. The same can be said about the scriptures and even about this blog. What I get from this blog right now could significantly change when/if I look back on this again in a year.
I like the last bit. I like it a lot.
Good write. It made me think.
Yes, exactly. Books that do only present one side of things do not lodge themselves in our minds and our souls like the ambiguous. The real greats are those that make us think, but do not direct our thoughts towards any one conclusion.
You’re right, ability does have a lot to do with it as well. I guess it hadn’t occurred to me that one of the biggest reasons I get something new out of re-reading good writing, especially something so deep and yet so sparsely written as the scriptures is the change my abilities and intelligence.
Thank you for the compliments. I try to make my posts worthwhile, though I’m never quite happy with them. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I don’t post nearly as frequently as when I started.
Good comment. It made me think.