Reasons to Write

Just thinking again.

There are other reasons to write besides wealth, fame or political activism. Writing as a medium of exploration and inquiry has its own reason for existing, its own rewards. Surely a writer needs readers and cannot forever write in a vacuum only for himself. But the exercise of language as a medium of thinking and experience exists for its own sake and does not require rewards of a material nature. The pursuit of truth is its own reward as the practice of any art can be its own reward. Instead of accepting the limits of the fishbowl of thought, one can allow thought to take wing and follow it anywhere it may go. And though one's body may be imprisoned, one's spirit may soar.

So there is writing as a means of financial security and recognition, writing as a force for social change, and there is the pursuit of the exercise for the sake of the art, for the exploration of the human spirit. The latter does not mean writing only for oneself. The act of writing presumes a reader, though it may be far removed in time and place from the writer. But like a sculptor or a painter or an athlete, a writer can draw great pleasure from the exercise of the medium itself, from the practice of the art.

I refuse to give up the integrity of my own mind and march in lockstep with the mediated masses and will always
attempt to view the vox populi from all angles, distances, color, shapes, hues

Let whoever wants to read what I write and what I've written and to delete if they so please.  It's the act of
writing that I'm really interested in. It forces me to actually think and since I'm basically lazy, writing is a form of
exercise to counter my laziness.

bob