Unified Field Theory

Ask me why I write and I treat the question like a riddle. And riddles make me suspicious and defensive. 

I've yet to find my own satisfactory answer to the "why do you write" question. Christopher Hitchens got close with his Descartian "being a writer's what I am rather than what I do." Hitchens at that time was facing not just his own morality but the ability to to the thing he loves even before his body succumbed. I don't have either problem, so I don't view it so starkly. Orwell also provided a decent answer, but no one asking the question wants an essay-length response. And I don't want to give one. And he did it better than I could, anyway. 

This is all to say that the follow up to my first aois21's Creative Speaking video (viewable here) sees me squirm a bit before getting comfortable enough to offer a take on my favorite definition of writing: playing with the scribbles on the page. I'm happiest when parsing ideas and thoughts and phrasings to within an inch of their lives. Some people follow those passions all the way to law school. Luckily, I've had some excellent guidance in my life and avoided that trap. I use my powers for good, dammit.

And, growing up, as I read more and more--Orwell, Lewis, Moore, others who did well for themselves playing with scribbles--I decided that that was what I wanted to do with my life. As though a particularly ambitious sea slug watched Michael Jordan play basketball and said, "hey that looks like fun." Some people want there to be a grand and deep-sounding philosophical approach to the why of writing. Or at least I want that. It would be comforting to me. But the truth is that I write because I can and because it's fun and because it's consistently occasionally rewarding. Like drinking. And that, dear readers, is the origin of the name of this blog. 

These videos will continue to trickle out over the next year/few months. I'll let you know when they debut.