Why I Write

I will be short and to the point. My creative passion is writing. Growing up I went to a classical school. This meant that I read a lot of old literature such as Dantes Divine Comedy, Plutarchs Lives, and so on. Eventually, I went on to read other books such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Power of Letting go, The Enneagram, and The Art of Thinking Clearly. I loved the way these books addressed the problems within society. Many times I would try to talk to my peers about these books. I am not able to communicate very well the ideas from the books in a conversational manner, so often times I would fabricate stories on the spot to explain the various themes from the books I was reading. These stories that I would tell seemed to help people better understand the ideas that I was presenting to them.

Before I graduated, my teacher told us to write a story about a soldier who was drafted in World War II. I immediately started to write. The story I wrote for that class is now posted on this site under the title ‘The Drafted Soldier’. The story has only a small amount of dialogue. I felt that if a family member really found out that their son was going to war there would be only silence and tears. What I wrote was a very somber piece on the emotions of the characters, not the dialogue of the characters. After this assignment, I realized how much I truly loved writing stories on the emotions that humans feel during everyday life.

Oftentimes, people feel that they are alone in their struggles and that no one understands them. What I hope to do with my writings is help those people to know that someone understands the emotions and the feelings that they are experiencing. All humans are the same; we all feel love, joy, pain, anger, hatred, and loss. I intend to keep using metaphors and analogies to describe the human state. For as Aristotle wrote in ‘The Rhetoric and The Poetics’, ”It is a great thing, indeed, to make a proper use of the poetical forms, as also of compounds and strange words. But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.”

Aesops Fables are a huge inspiration to me. How human nature is shown through those stories has always been an idea that stuck with me. I saw this same idea demonstrated in the book ‘The Art of Thinking Clearly' by Rolf Dobelli. In many of the chapters, Rolf Dobelli starts off with a story to give context to the ideas he would talk about later in the chapter. This is very helpful as most of the topics he addresses are very difficult to understand.

Everyone needs something to help them feel heard and understood. Whether it is a child whose parents are going through a divorce or a man who lost his wife. They need a voice who will show them that no matter what life will continue and they will make it through whatever struggles life presents them. I want to become a master of metaphor so that I may help people through their trials and tribulations. We all feel alone in this life. I simply want to make as many as I can feel less alone, so that they may live a happier and more understanding life.