On Writing

One of my mentors Bill has quoted Francis Bacon in one of our conversations:

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man"

We write essays, poems, songs and plays. Writing is the composition of ideas into communications, the committed pairing of thoughts to words. Writing is decision making. Writing is an art.

Writing is, on planet Earth at least, uniquely human. Writing allowed our race to accumulate and share our experiences to those whom we have never met or never will. Writing is the foundation of our civilisation.

Be that scribbles on papers or words showing up on a screen after the punching on a keyboard (which was not an easy feat., until Wozniak of Apple made it so), writing is noble, and literacy – while most of us reading this today may take it for granted - is about the most liberating gift one could ever receive. I feel gravely fortunate to be born in a place where our government, however flawed it may be, has made sure that every child is literate; In contrast, many children I have met while I lived in Tanzania were not.

We take many things for granted, Education easily being one of them. Therefore writing, especially those with kindness and sincerity, is a gift back to the world.