Words in Search of Wisdom

Blogs seem to need names. I have named this one "Words in Search of Wisdom." Why? Wouldn't "Wise Words" be better? Maybe, but it would also be presumptuous and inaccurate.

Another question: Can words search for wisdom? Isn't that what writers are supposed to do before they write? And are words capable of searching for, much less, finding, wisdom? Do they have the power of action independent of a human agent? No, not really. But in my experience of writing, words do have a life of their own even as they come from the mind and the hand of the writer. At least the process of writing brings into being insights that would not have existed had the writer not put forth some words.

That's what I hear in Joan Didion's declaration: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see, and what it means.” Or in Rebecca West's explanation, "I really write to find out what I know about something and what is to be known about something."

A website on academic writing suggests, “Write to find out what you think. Your thoughts will be somewhat muddled until you get them in writing. Don't go around and around in circles internally until you know what to write. Write before you know what you're going to say.”

Robert Kellogg in The Psychology of Writing suggests that the act of writing can even be therapeutic. "Psychotherapists have also looked to writing as a means of personal restoration. . . People seek meaning in their lives. Not all must write in order to find meaning, but the mindfulness required by writing could well serve as a tool for therapy."

That has been my experience, so I write in order that I may understand (to paraphrase Anselm, who said, "I believe in order that I may understand"). Or, to bring it into the digital age, I blog in order that I may understand.