Writing Can Set Us Free

I believe in the power of writing. It is the strongest power I am aware of. It can create. It can destroy. It is the fuel for one of the strongest machines on the planet. It lifts us up and carries us to new places. It has the power to destroy old ideas. It can make a mom on welfare into one of the most recognized women in the world. The person welding it only limits its power.

I love this power, it is free and anyone is allowed as much or as little of it as they want. There are, in this country at least, no limits on what is used for. The person who uses it to disagree has as much right to it as the person who uses it to entertain. The person who entertains with it is given the same respect as the person who chooses to use it to inform.

It is an easy power to start using. All you need is a pen and paper. Those two simple items can lead you to almost anything you can think of. Writing is a great escape. And in the middle of all craziness in the world what we really need is to escape. And there is no faster way in this world to do that then sitting down and pull out some paper and a pen and start scribbling away. You might end up nowhere special but you might find a way into a Hogwarts all your own. The only way to know is to try.

I know for myself that writing has helped me to change my life. I wrote through my selfish “I-want-to-have-friends-at-any-cost” phase. I have pages of my writing that talk about my depression at its worst. Pen and paper have been as necessary as ice cream through every break up I’ve ever had. And, if truth be told, if you look carefully enough you will find some ex-friends as murder victims in my “I-really-want-to-write-a-murder-mystery” phase. I know that scrapbooking is the newest of the new ways to preserve your past but for me the very best way to preserve my past is a three-ring binder and yellow notebook paper filled with pen scratching.

So grab a pen and some paper, throw out the rules of grammar, close your eyes and start scribbling. Because, this I believe: the power of writing can set us free.