Why Write? by Professor Bert Lorenzo

I remind my students at the start of every semester I consider my course the most valuable they’ll ever take not because of me but because of the value of writing and of writing clearly. I discuss many of the purposes of writing and we talk a lot about academic and professional writing and how in these situations clarity should always remain job one because we write in these cases to communicate ideas and directions. Whether we write for one reader or thousands we must make sure they understand the message.

We live in an ever increasing sophisticated society. This makes literacy paramount. My students read and write constantly because of technology that requires it but do they read and write effectively? They must learn to do so.

I don’t talk to them much about personal writing like journals, diaries and letters but they also serve important purposes but personal writing can teach us about ourselves or help us learn period. Writing can even have a therapeutic effect-very important in a sophisticated society. Two of my favorite therapies rely on writing extensively.

In the Japanese Naikan Therapy the therapist teaches clients how to practice gratitude and to focus on the good things and people in their lives. Many people make our lives possible and bearable but we don’t often focus on that. Naikan therapists have their clients write lists of all the people who make their day possible: the grocer, the farmer, the bus driver, the soldier, the waiter. The list gets very long as the therapist helps patients brainstorm. Sometimes clients work on their lists for days in seclusion. They even write thank you letters. I don’t know enough about the therapy so I don’t know whether they send the letters.

In Narrative Therapy clients write about events in their lives to help deconstruct those events and make new, more mentally healthy meaning or interpretation. Through writing they discover they’d distorted what happened. Through writing they learn and find reality and clarity. They discover writing can help them take control of a problem and can help reshape their identity. Narrative therapists conclude all events influence our lives. Because writing helps us learn we discover how a particular event impacted us manifold from our values to our health. Narrating the event helps us “re-story” it. From there we can conquer the problem.

Therapeutic writing can help us conquer fear, depression, anxiety, anger. One therapeutic theory says that you need to get it out of your system. If you feel angry with someone try this. Write him a letter and really tell him what you think. Then put away the letter. Return to it three days later and decide then if you want to mail it. You may have gotten the anger out of your system just by writing. You can now destroy the letter before anyone else reads it.

This simple exercise may cool your anger and perhaps help you keep a friend. Most people who write letters in anger and send them probably live to regret it.

Literacy gives us power. I hope you’ll exercise it.

Copyright Bert Lorenzo, 2010

Social Contract by Dr. George M. Gabb

Of dreams I fly of times long gone by

Since my eyes first saw the dawn

Where the thundering of hooves now quiet

After the lions, no longer hungry, lay lazily

And from lush green savannahs to dust driven dens

My mind ravenous with curiosity

I ventured into the powdered white north and tropical paradises

And to this day, without greed, I made neither haste nor waste

I persisted and I flourished

Until the chains of civilization placed my children into bondage

I am judged by the color of my skin

Not by my miracles nor the magnitude of my sins

Though sensibilities would believers of us make

That thousands of years of progress we have made to date

Yet, I am punished for my only offense

The very breath that I take

In apprenticeship of learned men

I thrive, I build, I embrace the art of Zen

From the ruins of Egypt, Rome, and Greece

To the east where live the Persians, the Hindu, the Chinese

I till the soil, mine the earth, and raise edifices that

Sing heavenly tribute to eras gone by

That haunts my soul, enslave my body, and condemn my children

I forge forward frayed conquistador satiated on the sanguine promise,

We will inherit it all

I am judged by the color of my skin

Not by my miracles nor the magnitude of my sins

Though sensibilities would believers of us make

That thousands of years of progress we have made to date

Yet, I am punished for my only offense

The very breath that I take

Obese with the luxury to freely roam

Every crevice of theories, thought, and ideas

We stumble onto each new day unaware of our fortune

Where in gilded homes we rest, we feed, we caress

And in fancy chariots we traverse Eden renovated with cement and steel

The same path today, the same path yesterday, the same path tomorrow

And if we vary we see clearly the empty promise of home

Our caves, our fields, our forests, our streams

Heavy their burden on the children of our Fathers’ dreams

Their lies, our tears, we part at the seams

We divert our eyes, clench our purses, believing this is not me

We are true to form and to history’s recursivity

I am judged by the color of my skin

Not by my miracles nor the magnitude of my sins

Though sensibilities would believers of us make

That thousands of years of progress we have made to date

Yet, I am punished for my only offense

The very breath that I take

I will continue to persist for I wish to do more than exist

I aspire to civility