As My Next Witness, I Call David McCullough to the Stand

Some bloggers have run into resistance about our hobby, or at least that is what I've gleaned from reading a few posts about the topic. There seems to be a notion that blogging can be a waste of time, unlike basketball, or scrapbooking, or movie watching, gardening, game playing or reading, which are more constructive pastimes...I guess? I mean who is the judge and jury who decides which diversions are more worthwhile than others?

Today I listened to an interview with David McCullough, one of our premiere historians and the author of 1776, who hit on a very interesting point. While discussing his study of the personal letters and diaries of historical figures that make up the majority of his research, he said:

"We don't write letters much anymore, and we don't keep diaries. No politician in our lifetime, I don't think, will ever keep a diary again. And they would really pour themselves out on paper. They would uncover their innermost feelings, their thoughts, worries, anxieties, ambitions, animosities, and particularly if they were writing to someone they particularly cared about or trusted totally. They also were doing something very important which we don't do much anymore, at least among family through correspondence of this kind, and that is the old expression: They were working their thoughts out on paper. We've all had that experience; we're writing a report, or a memo, or a letter, or a book, and suddenly you have an idea, you have an insight that you never would have had if you weren't putting those words down on paper, and that is why it was not just important that they communicate to someone else what they were thinking or feeling, but why it was so important--that act of writing helped them to clarify their thoughts."

That is one of the primary reasons I love blogging. It can be a great form of pondering and meditation. As I struggle to communicate the stresses, struggles, passions, concerns, and feelings regarding a variety of topics, I begin to see them more clearly. I do gain insights into the personal circumstances of my life.

It is too easy in our day and age to run from one activity to the next, full of noise and hurry, without really thinking and examining what is going on around us. Writing gives me time for that.

Even in my silly posts about the nonsense of daily life, documenting those moments makes me more aware of the life I am living. It helps bring what is important to me into focus. As I relive happy moments, I appreciate them more deeply, and as I find a way to laugh at the difficulties, it minimizes them.

Writing is exercise for the brain and food for the soul. I know I am better off because of it. And so to the pastime judge and jury: I rest my case.