Write for your life

As you can tell from this, this, and this post, I like talking about my fellow alumni. So here's a story about a young female blogger from RJC, where I spent two years of my life and hope to return to next year as a History teacher.

Oops.

I'm not going to comment extensively on the substance of her remarks -- plenty have already. I do think it unfortunate, though, that she's taken down her blog, whether voluntarily, or because someone told her to. The Singaporean blogosphere needs intelligent people like her. It needs civility, decency, and thoughtfulness, as well, of course, but these can be acquired in time, and with more, not less writing.

Writing, you see, as I've found out in the past six years, where I've done more of it than at any other time in my life, can change the way you think. When properly supplemented by reading, it forces you to order the insides of your brain for public scrutiny (I was going to say "public consumption," but that brought to mind zombies); you don't truly know something until you've fleshed (zombies!) it out in words, words, words. How many times have you started writing an essay with a particular end in mine only to find yourself midway through that you've strayed from the path and ended up in woods lovely, dark, and deep? Writing, to borrow from the vocabulary of American progressive thought, is an agent for change. My co-blogger at Dartobserver, for instance, has moved from the center-right of American politics to the center-left, thanks in no small way to blogging and writing (and reading, of course).
Posted by kungfuzi at 1:08 pm |