Has anyone stopped to appreciate what a gift writing is?
No shopping lists, no ingredient labels, no directions, no signposts, no recipes, no love notes on napkins in lunch boxes, no journals, no scriptures.
We would not have history. How on earth are you supposed to remember all that? And then how do you make your children memorize it? And how do you make them make their children memorize it? How do you make sure it does not accidentally change?
We get the wisdom of the ages because it is written down. Otherwise we would just get the wisdom of the last few generations. There's a lot, but there's more.
How would we remember where we come from? Let's see. My mother's name is Virginia Adele Haws, my grandmother's name is Lorna Virginia Barney, her mother's name is... Effie Ferieda Trabant? And her mother's name is...
Let's try my dad's side. William Woods Brison. Bernard Brison. His dad: ...Mr. Brison...
Have I humiliated myself enough to make the point? I don't have to memorize it because it is written down somewhere!
An author wrote an article about the special relationship between author and reader that only exists because of the writing. An author can write about something very personal. He or she can explore the very depths of issues and feelings. Then the reader comes along and finds that the treatment of the author's subject allows the reader to understand, to feel that someone understands. This very real, very important, and very deep connection probably would never have happened- how many authors have you had conversations like that with? Writing allows that sort of connection without either the reader or the author feeling uncomfortable at such closeness.
How many discussions have you had with your journal? Who could you tell, but those blank pages that do not threaten to judge, or betray your confidences, but offer comfort and sense?
I bring you back to a discussion of scriptures. I have spoken with five Jews in my life, tops. And never did they have the occasion to recite to me all that is contained in the Bible, which I need to know. And the authors of the Book of Mormon, (which I believe is as real and as valid as the Bible) how many Nephites have you met? Did they have the opportunity to teach you in person?
Hugh Nibley summed it up like this: thought stimulation, thought preservation, thought transmission.
I think I pheel better now, having philosophized phrankly with my phantastic phriday phriends.
(That joke wouldn't exist, if not for writing. What was that? We would be better off without the joke? Thanks. I appreciate your modes of expression too!)
