"thought made visible"

Thought, in its very nature, is personal. More so, thought is, in many ways, who we are: what we do, what we decide, what we say and how we say it; all are rooted in thought. But thought makes its home in the mind, plants itself there.

This is fairly obvious, of course. But perhaps, less apparent is the idea that writing is "thought made visible." And perhaps, since thought is so personal and writing is making the personal, public, this makes us reluctant to share our writing. Perhaps, this is why when we write a draft to an essay or a rough sketch, first wisps of a poem, that we hold on to it, sensitive to the comments of others, to their scrutinizing eyes.Writing can therefore be the uprooting of those thoughts buried deep in the mind, and replanting them on the blank page. Writing exposes those inner desires, inner dialogues, opinions, to the world and its judgement.

Take this blog, for example. I always publish a post and then scan it, wondering is my grammar correct? did I write enough? or too much? I consider what you, the reader will think: will you agree?

Of course, writing does not need to be the violent image of uprooting involuntarily; it can be quite cathartic, as well. R.D. Walshe writes about "learning potentials" of writing: "writing as the great collector of ideas" and "writing as the great clarifier of thinking." The latter of the two describes my experience with journaling. Until I write, and see myself and my ideas on paper, they are oftentimes a bundle of thoughts in a knot in my head. Writing loosens the knot, until each idea or emotion is separated. Only then do I truly understand what I'm thinking or feeling, and only then can I begin to explain that to someone else.

Though it may be scary, and I believe we, as teachers need to be sensitive to that when workshopping in class or grading a paper, writing allows us to know ourselves more completely. And really, only then, begin to explain ourselves to others.