No one can.
This has always been true, but it is more obvious now that many people have stopped reading. There is no other way to learn the subtleties of language.
So why am I offering to teach a three-hour writing seminar, on Zoom, for the Taos Writers Conference July 25?
You may well ask.
What I can inspire, if not teach, is the appetite for putting words down on the page that has been my theme and my salvation since I was a child.
Appetite, and enthusiasm, both in short supply these days.
I want to help the students in my class to feel my joy when, first thing in the morning—nearly always although not today—I sit down in front of the leather-backed notebook that is holding my daily thoughts and feelings.
Committing them to written words inspires and strengthens me, because then they become real.
This doesn’t depend on anyone reading them. That is another matter.
As we pray and sing and dance at times for ourselves alone, without partners or audience, so we write to make our existence real—for ourselves.
And so, yesterday, when I saw the American flag flying bold and free from a post set into the back of a big black truck, I define freedom and independence as my right, and yours, to set down whatever words we chose on a page.
And yes, there are some helpful hints I will pass along… although not here in the hope that some reading this post will sign up for my class.
No, it’s not the same on Zoom. But when those familiar and unfamiliar faces flash up on my screen, I will sense, at least briefly, the community of those who care about the written word.
And for me, that’s more than enough.
[For more information about the class, including a Q & A video, please see the event page here on my site.]
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