Duh.
But the reasons I love to write may come as a surprise to even those who know me best. Writing and music are my two favorite ways to express myself, for totally different reasons. But first a little information about myself.
I am at my core an extremely introverted person. Given to my own devices my ideal life would be lived in a small condo, filled with books and endless takeout, a black Baldwin grand piano in the corner, board games on my shelves, and a comfortable chair and table to enjoy all of these bountiful blessings. That is my idea of paradise. If forced to commute to my job my ideal work situation would be in a small office, in a high rise with one window, preferably with no way to communicate with others short of my computer, accomplishing tasks with little oversight and even less communication with the outside world. (All in room cooled to 64 degrees fahrenheit please)
Okay, you're going to have to give me a moment . . .
Enough backstory, let's jump into why I love to communicate using music.
I have been playing the piano since I was around eight years old. I have spent thousands of hours immersed in the world of music, some of it painful, but most of it filled with the joy that comes from being able to express yourself with pure abandonment, unrestricted by barriers of any type. I can remember one time in particular, when I was still living with my parents, playing the piano in the living room and totally forgetting that there was a world outside of that moment. When I finished I looked up and my Mom was watching in the doorway, wearing a peculiar expression on her face. "I don't think I have ever heard you play with such freedom," she said carefully, "but I know it is a gift that God intends for you to share with others."
I've thought about those words often, and have tried to honor that request throughout my life. I have played for others in homes, churches, schools, restaurants, bars, amphitheaters, the White House, in hotels and theatres in South America, studios throughout the south, on a ferry crossing from Seattle to Canada, in a tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and in many other places that I can't recall.
I do believe that when I gave my gift fully to God in my late twenties, He has since used me in ways I couldn't even imagine. I have worked hard and done my best to hone my talent, to improve the way I communicate using my music, and most of all, to reduce if not eliminate the barrier between myself and my audience.
And that is a difficult accomplishment because it requires so many other factors to be true, several of which may not be within the realm of your control.
For instance, let's take a look at the instrument you are playing. I have played in the world famous Reed House in Chattanooga, TN, on a piano that had seven keys that didn't even play! I also remember playing in the legendary Tivoli Theatre, also in Chattanooga, and having to work around two keys that were noticeably out of tune from the others. I have played on Steinways and homemade uprights and each time I have tried to minimize whatever distraction that the instrument might possess. And we haven't even touched on P.A. equipment, sound engineers, monitors, stage layouts, the list is almost endless of things that can come between the performer and his audience.
But nowhere is that more important than when we are helping to lead people to the throne of God. It is imperative that all aspects of your life and performance be aligned with the goal of glorifying Him, and not yourself with your music. In those holy moments, people's lives can be changed eternally by God working through your efforts. And is there any higher calling in communication than that objective?
But as much as I love playing music, (and I haven't owned a decent piano in many years so I haven't played in almost that same amount of time) I think I enjoy writing even more. I also started writing at a young age, as I think almost anyone who enjoys to read will attest. I have always had a gift of creative storytelling, sometimes to my disadvantage, but never to an uninteresting conclusion. I remember one of my favorite characters, a detective called Mr. Blair, who came across as a shy, unimposing person of little imagination, who used this deception to discover and draw out facts about his cases that others couldn't produce. Looking back its not hard to see the similarities between Detective Blair and the personna I would create for myself. I found it to be a great advantage to fly under the radar, listening carefully and picking my moment to assert myself in a way that others had not assumed possible. I found this to be a great benefit, though not always honest in nature, in business as well as personal relationships.
But I always discarded that perception when I would write.
Looking back, maybe it was a lack of confidence, maybe it was a way to shield myself from possible rejection, I'm really not sure the motivation that caused me to pursue that course of action. But I did notice that when I would write the gloves would come off, the mask would be discarded, and I felt the same type of freedom, (perhaps even more so) that I felt when I would take my seat behind a piano.
So why do I love to write? I think the number one reason is because I am free to communicate in a way that I don't even find possible when I speak. I am finding this to even be more of a truth as I grow older, words and logic are more easily described when I write, noticeably less when I speak. I have found myself struggling to recall memories, and have noticed that the manner of connecting my thoughts to my speech are becoming less reliable. Earlier in my life I often heard the phrase, "You should have considered becoming a lawyer" which I attested not only to my imagination, but also my ability to string words and thoughts concisely using my verbal skills.
Those days appear to be behind me.
Actually let me clarify that thought, though my ability to verbalize my thoughts is becoming more difficult, I am finding it far easier to write down those processes than in the past. The reasons behind this change are of less importance to me than the discovery that the desired platform to communicate my thoughts and passions has shifted. I'm not discounting any medical origins for this change of behavior, yet I find I am less concerned with the cause and more focused on finding other ways to properly communicate my thoughts with others.
Wow, that was a lot more background than I thought I was going to share. Let's return to the second part of this blog, why do I love to write:
The number one reasons is because I can create anything in my wildest imagination. Exchanging one reality for another enables readers to leave behind the real world to immerse themselves in a work of pure fiction. How cool is that?
The second reason is because words give me comfort. Knowing that I can examine a sentence, and then rearrange or even reformulate the words to best describe my thoughts is a wonderful luxury that only occurs for me when writing.
Another reason is a little more selfish, and that is because I want to leave my mark on the world. And to bring that conclusion to a even more specific target, I want to leave my daughter a piece of myself on this planet.
I am a Christ-follower and I believe that this world is not our real home. But it is our current existence and more importantly, this is where we decide where we will spend our true existence, in either heaven or hell. Seeing that I cannot imagine a heaven without my daughter, I want to do my part to express not only my love for her, but my love and dedication to Jesus Christ. And if my words can in any way be a comfort, or a guide for her to increase her desire to know more about God, that is a win in my book.
So those our are a few of my reasons for my love of writing. Of course there are many other blessings that come with the ability to express yourself, a feeling of being known, a desire to let others go deeper with me than our current situations might allow, and mostly to be able to give praise to Jesus who makes my life complete. As a Christian, I firmly believe that Jesus Christ is King, and I strive to live in a way that pleases Him. I very badly want this to be clear in all my writing; even in fiction.
There is also the comfort and reality of knowing that whether I am engaged in writing or reading, words make me feel at home. I love to wander through secondhand bookstores, running my fingers over the cracked spines and worn covers. I still have treasured books from my childhood and I count my library of books, along with my personal photos, as some of the most valuable possessions I own.
Okay, in closing, let's look at some statistics regarding words in the English language. The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use (and 47,156 obsolete words).
But it’s impossible to determine how many words there are in the English language from the dictionary alone. First, it takes a while for dictionary publishers like Oxford University and Merriam-Webster to include new words in their dictionaries. Slang and jargon also exist and are transforming our culture of words on a daily basis.
It’s safe to say that the average vocabulary of people is less than the total number of words in English. When you use the word counter in Word to count the number of words you’ve typed in an essay, that number will probably be only be a fraction of the total number of words in English. There is just no way that someone can know and use daily every word in the English language.
But, how many words does the average person know? Robert Charles Lee, a published writer, answers this question on Quora. He writes that “3,000 words will cover 95% of everyday writing — common texts and speech like newspapers, blogs, most books, movies, etc.” Out of those 3000 words, only “the first 1,000 words are used in 89% of everyday writing.”
As new words become part of the vernacular, other words become obsolete. While it is good to know as many words as possible and continuously build your vocabulary, the average person only needs to know a small percentage of words to get by. In fact it has been said that by knowing 1.75% of the English dictionary, you’ll be able to understand 95% of what you read. And that will allow you to communicate yourself clearly as you continue to share your thoughts with the world.
