Why I want to teach writing

...and why I write, really.

"We share the powers of language to express emotions, to inspire creative thought, and to change perceptions of the self and others. We share the power of language to transform thought and being." (Murphy 16)

Writing is so much more than a means of communication. Writing is the medium by which we grow to understand ourselves and our history. From reading the past and reading the present, we are able to understand where we come from and where we are. Writing stops time in its permanence.

In its permanence, writing also changes people. One piece of paper can change the entire trajectory of history. Martin Luther's 95 theses changed Christianity forever. The American Declaration of Independence started a war that eventually led to the creation of the most powerful country in the world.

With one paper and one idea (or many ideas, in some cases), the world as we know it changes.

The importance of wanting to learn

"Was wanting all that was necessary for doing?" - Ranciere in The Ignorant Schoolmaster

The desire to learn and improve is probably the best vehicle for learning. Anyone who wants to learn can. Anyone who wants to improve will. The question of how quickly or how much the person absorbs will differ based on previous experience and a certain amount of talent, but the fact that a person wants to changes the game.

Take the most talented person who doesn't care to learn. They'll most certainly get something but they will not fully utilize the talent they have.

Take someone with no talent whatsoever. With hard work, perseverance, and the drive (i.e. desire) to learn, the person will probably perform as well as, if not better, than the unmotivated and unengaged talented person.

Hard work and perseverance are talents in and of themselves and it's amazing how far it'll go with someone who wants to learn and improve.

This goes beyond the classroom to pretty much all aspects of life. If you want to improve at something and you work at it, you will improve. That's really all there is to it.

Material things that make me happy

Happiness is so often found in the small things and people forget how to be happy because the bigger things in life don't work out. I mean yeah, we all have our issues, and there will always be some kind of problem in our lives that we have to work through (arguably).

Yes, bad things happen.

However, there are always things to count as one's blessings or another way to look at it is that there are always things one can take pleasure in.

I got a lot of One Piece paraphernalia when I lived in Asia. I was able to go to this exhibit that they had for the anime (totally epic and awesome on so many levels) and I got a mug from it. The design is below:

I have rice bowls and soup bowls that are also One Piece. I forgot to enjoy them as pieces I get to use that are of my favorite anime and today, I remembered that.

It made me smile.

How I feel about trying to figure out what to wear

From questionablecontent (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2791)

Anger

I think I have a lot of hidden rage or anger. Perhaps it could be called a deep sense of injustice. I'm not sure but I think that it stems from a sense of powerlessness too. People do what they can given their situations but when one knows that one has little power and the injustice is larger than themselves, what is it that one can do?

I think a lot of people turn to crime when it becomes too much to handle. However, perhaps my anger lies below the surface because I sense the fruitlessness of leading a life of crime. Crime seems to be a foolish outlet to me.

I guess I fight my own battles in my own quiet way. I found that the idea of killing someone with kindness does work and perhaps I've rerouted my anger here. Doing good in the place of evil allows one to also build up one's character.

But I suppose that doesn't change the fact that the rage or anger or whatever is still there. Perhaps I've never noticed it until recently because there have been changes in the way that the powerless are viewed and treated. Perhaps this outlet allows people like me to realize the anger that was always there but was never expressed because there was no way to articulate it.

I don't know.

One of the thoughts is this (though this will take this thought train into a different direction):
Irritation, unresolved, leads to frustration. It leads to anger, which unchecked, leads to rage.

This whole idea of power, of empowerment, and of powerlessness, especially in light of societal influences is fascinating. I don't think that it's always a power dynamic, yet when relationships become defined as such, one cannot escape seeing all things through that lens.

To simply exist and be accepted is something that all who are marginalized fight for.

Even in acceptance though, can we ever escape the scrutiny of others? We are always watching, judging, assessing, criticizing, and critiquing. Perhaps that's what bothers me. I like to be unobserved in what I do and I don't like that people have access to me because that access leads to observation and all that comes with that.

Perhaps this goes allll the way back to the post I wrote years ago about being self-conscious...