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| A Note From Our Editor The Written Word By Pamela Parker What power there is in the written word! Where would we be without it? Would we still be living in caves? Would our daily lives be a continuous struggle for survival with little or no thought for the future? Would our ability to advance our knowledge and technology be limited to what we could remember? I believe so. The ability to write down our thoughts and experiences is a priceless treasure. Writing helps us to organize our thoughts, to analyze them and draw conclusions from them. The process of writing slows down our thoughts and forces us to give them more consideration. Having them written down gives us the ability to review them and contemplate them. These two together enable us to speculate on different outcomes and consequences of our thoughts and of the events in our life. As much as it does for us, the writer, it does even more for the reader. Through reading, we are able to go anywhere, do anything - experience things we would otherwise be denied. We can gain knowledge from others, we are given insight into their thoughts, their skills, and the events of their lives. We have the advantage of learning and experiencing things and happenings through the written word. The written word keeps us organized, tells what we need, what we need to buy, where we need to go, what we need to do. Life in our fast-paced culture is not simple. We all multi-task and have a huge list of things that need our attention before day is done. Writing has helped us to evolve to this state (for better or worse) and helps us to deal with the pace. Computers (another example of the written word) have moved us even further in the area of sharing knowledge and experience. (And, yes, even I have caved in and bought one for myself. ) Never before has so much knowledge been available to so many. I do see this as a positive thing. Yes, direct experience still has its VERY valuable place in life�s journey. But now that direct experience can be augmented by the experiences of many, many others; giving us perspective, acting as a sounding board, and adding to our own personal experience. So, it is with great pleasure that I begin my task as editor of this newsletter. It is my hope that this will be a valuable tool for sharing our thoughts, our experiences, our knowledge, our stories. We have a great many wonderful writers in our community and I look forward to reading their exploits, their opinions, their theories, their ideas, their stories. Let us begin our journey with hope and camaraderie and trust and faith in each other and in the process. HAPPY READING AND HAPPY WRITING!!! |
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