JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.
Vieraskieliset / In-english

Blog: Thoughts about writing, writing about thoughts

Vieraskieliset / In-english
23.5.2022 6.00

Juttua muokattu:

8.4. 12:20
2022040812204420220523060000

Text: Ma­ti­as Lah­ti

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

”I do not know what I think be­fo­re I write about it.” This is what the wri­ter Joan Di­di­on is re­por­ted to have said. I think I un­ders­tand well what she me­ans. While re­a­ding ex­pands our men­tal world, wri­ting helps to or­ga­ni­ze its con­tent. In­comp­le­te thoughts have their va­lue, but the need to put them in­to wri­ting is un­comp­ro­mi­sing: what exact­ly do you think, and what pre­ci­se­ly is yo­ur opi­ni­on? What can be said cle­ar­ly has been thought cle­ar­ly.

Many pe­op­le find wri­ting dif­fi­cult. One of the main re­a­sons is pro­bab­ly the dif­fi­cul­ty to ver­ba­li­ze one’s thoughts as pre­ci­se sen­ten­ces and co­he­rent text. Men­tal con­tent is mul­ti­di­men­si­o­nal, and the way most of us ex­pe­rien­ce the world is non-ver­bal.

Our thoughts are not comp­le­te sen­ten­ces but un­con­nec­ted words, imp­res­si­ons, ob­ser­va­ti­ons, fee­lings and frag­men­ta­ry ide­as. The abi­li­ty to or­ga­ni­ze this con­tent in­to co­he­rent text re­qui­res work and prac­ti­ce. That work pays off: an abi­li­ty to exp­ress one­self ver­bal­ly fa­ci­li­ta­tes in­te­rac­ti­on and helps one to deal with dif­fi­cult mat­ters. Ver­bal in­com­pe­ten­ce, on the ot­her hand, ma­kes it hard for pe­op­le to un­ders­tand each ot­her and of­ten le­a­ves dif­fi­cult mat­ters un­sol­ved.

It is ex­hi­la­ra­ting to meet so­me­o­ne whose oral or writ­ten pre­sen­ta­ti­on is crys­tal clear. At some point in my life, I met a per­son whose exp­res­si­on was ex­cep­ti­o­nal­ly in­sight­ful, rich and pre­ci­se. I was daz­z­led and be­gan to strive to­ward si­mi­lar com­pe­ten­ce my­self. I re­a­li­zed that ver­sa­ti­le vo­ca­bu­la­ry not on­ly ma­kes for pre­ci­se exp­res­si­on but al­so ser­ves as a sti­mu­lus: a few un­con­ven­ti­o­nal but ap­po­si­te words may punc­tu­re a hole in the mind that al­lows us to see furt­her. The hole al­so lets in fresh oxy­gen.

My his­to­ry as a pub­lic wri­ter is short. I have writ­ten a lot, but most­ly eit­her work-re­la­ted fac­tu­al texts or com­ments to a dis­cus­si­on in a small circ­le. Alt­hough self-exp­res­si­on through art is na­tu­ral to me, I have ne­ver se­ri­ous­ly con­si­de­red writ­ten lan­gu­a­ge as a tool of exp­res­si­on. I have writ­ten a few po­ems, but they re­main bu­ried in my desk dra­wer.

Blog­ging as a text type is new to me. It seems es­pe­ci­al­ly chal­len­ging be­cau­se of the need to find a ba­lan­ce bet­ween the pub­lic and the pri­va­te. A blog post should not be a lec­tu­re, nor should it be the kind of emo­ti­o­nal out­pou­ring we might write in a di­a­ry.

I have spent my yo­uth and ear­ly adult­hood on many dif­fe­rent things. I have had a va­rie­ty of jobs, I have read and stu­died, spent time with my fa­mi­ly, dis­cus­sed and pon­de­red. Af­ter the ye­ars of yo­uth­ful un­cer­tain­ty and dif­fi­den­ce, I be­gan to const­ruct my world view and phi­lo­sop­hy of life. Ma­y­be now is a good time to ver­ba­li­ze some of these thought pro­ces­ses and to share them with ot­hers for re-pro­ces­sing. My in­ten­ti­on is not to say how things are, but rat­her to sug­gest some ap­p­ro­ac­hes and pos­sib­le ways to think as well as to of­fer sti­mu­la­ti­on to ot­her pe­op­le’s thin­king. Let eve­ry­bo­dy cre­a­te their own re­a­li­ty – and write about it.

29.3.2024

Jeesus huusi kovalla äänellä: ”Isä, sinun käsiisi minä uskon henkeni.” Tämän sanottuaan hän henkäisi viimeisen kerran. Luuk. 23:46

Viikon kysymys