Tuesday, May 03, 2005

The Balm of Writing

Blogroll Me!

At 12:30 a.m. I should really be sleeping, especially when I get up six hours from now, but I wanted to have my last word of the day -- or rather, my first word of the day.

Shakespeare had his famous line: "...to sleep, perchance to dream, aye, there's the rub..." I have mine: "...whether 'tis nobler to write or to speak..."

In my case, I am more noble when I write--perhaps because I can hide behind paper or computer screen, using streamofconsciousness to get my points across. I subject my readers to my detailed wordiness, holding them captive whether they like it or not. But place me in front of you in person, and I take after a certain aspect of my name -- I am the Pearl that clams up in its shell. And if I do speak, sometimes I am not as eloquent in person as I am on paper; I think sometimes I am not as interesting in person as I am on paper; I KNOW that sometimes I am not as comfortable in person as I am on paper.

You might very well meet me and say, "L'havdil! You are witty, you are fun, you are generous, you are compassionate, you are a warm individual; you do not come across at all as you've described yourself in your May 3rd post." But you don't know that I can also be a good actress, who takes on a temporary role of "Outgoing Female" if feeling uncomfortable in a situation. And I often do feel awkward or self-conscious. And at those moments, I sometimes yearn for my pen and paper, so that I can write about how I feel.

Writing, for me anyway, is a wonderful balm; it is such an extension of who I was, who I am, and who I'm becoming. And that, fine folks, is what you are continuing to discover as you read Pearlies of Wisdom...

{see...it takes 25 minutes to make my simple point! how verbose can i be?]