on writing

I have become a writing machine since this odd thing happened to me. I write all the time. I think about writing all the time. I think about all the things I want to write.

I kind of like this. Was it always there, just waiting until I had the time and the opportunity to really indulge it? As I keep saying, suddenly finding time is a marvelous thing. There are a lot of things you can do, given the time.

Most of my writing these days has taken the form of letters (well, emails) to family and friends who keep track of me. So if you're wondering where all this writing is that I'm talking about, there it is. I've always been a huge letter writer--I like emails better than phone calls. There's something about writing that helps me process the things that happen, that gives them meaning, that allows me to sort them into the structure of my day and life. I've never been a diary-writer, which is odd--you'd think that form might work for me. But it doesn't. There has to be someone there on the other side, someone I know, to whom I write and who I know will respond.

Writing is rarely just for me alone. I'm not a diary-writer. The only kind of writing I can think of that I do that is like that is my compulsive list-making. I love to make lists: things I'm going to do; silly items I need at the grocery store; presents I want to remember to get for people one day when I need presents for them; recipes I want to make; lists of neat quotes I've heard and books that sound interesting. Songs I hear on the radio that I like! I've got lists of those, too. I love to make lists. Lists for me are all about hope and the future: you write them down because they are things you want to do, that are going to be fun. Or they're things you want to think about one day. One of the lists I have sitting here on my desk is my list of Japanese tales from the Middle Ages. During our trip to Japan at the beginning of the summer, I became hugely interested in the parallel feudal age taking place almost at the same time as the European one. Such a strange parallel! What do we make of these things? There are wonderful tales from the period, and a wealth of fascinating history. We saw many of the feudal compounds of the Samurai when we visited--more than anything I've ever seen, I think these--no! the temples were even more striking!--completely altered my world view.

I want to get back to all of that now. Good thing I wrote it all down!