Writing Is My Catharsis

Writing Is My Catharsis

Writing Is My Catharsis

Merriam-Webster gives the following definition of catharsis: a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension.

I happen to like that definition as it defines my reasons for writing to a “T”. Writing purifies me from the garbage that I walk through on a daily basis—most of it on network news. If you’re asking yourself, if he doesn’t like network news why does he watch/listen…keep reading.

Writing allows me to purge junk from my mind allows me a release from tension.

As to the spiritual renewal…well I’m working on that.

I’ve heard stories about Abraham Lincoln writing letters to generals and political opponents. Letters that were scathing to say the least. Letters that were brutal attacks with those he had disagreements.

The beauty of Lincoln’s “hot letters” were that they never left his drawer. He would write the letters, place them in the upper drawer of his desk to “gestate” and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln would remove and destroy them. For an in-depth article on Lincoln’s angry letters see: http://goo.gl/kL5iP4

I don’t presume to put myself in the same league as our 16th President but I do have a tendency to do the same thing with my “letters”.

I stay in the habit of writing EVERY day. Nowhere near the number of words needed to be in the league of Isaac Asimov but a great place to start for an aspiring writer.

So on a daily basis I sit down and write. Sometimes I continue writing on a novel, sometimes I write copy for websites, and sometimes I just rant about what’s going on in the world. Those rants are my version of the “hot letter”

I have to admit it’s pretty easy to rant during my daily personal writing and thus purge myself of the anger and disbelief I feel about our elected “officials”.

I feel a bit like the comedian Will Rogers, I can’t make this stuff up — I only know what I read in the papers (or see on network television). And as long as we have a federal or state government I’ll never be without something funny, or tragic, to write about.

So to keep from banging a flat spot on my forehead I write. I have hundreds of short stories, potential novels, blog articles and just plain meanderings that at some point I may publish—once the hot letters cool down.

I greatly admire the American writer, Samuel Clemens, most know him as Mark Twain. He’s best known for his works, Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Unfortunately, most folks don’t know he was quite a political commentator as well. Again, I pale in comparison to this genius of pen and ink, but I do feel in some small measure I follow in his footprints. See: http://www.twainquotes.com/Politics.html

So to lower my blood pressure, relax, and have some fun…I write, and I write, and on occasion I rant when I write.

Maybe it does put me in the same league as other famous writers; if so then I’m mighty proud!

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