Why do you write?

I was originally going to title this post why do I write, but soon changed it because I want to engage you, invite you into this as a discussion, rather than me monologue at you.

Now I know that you're not really going to respond to my questions, so it's going to end up as a monologue anyway, but I really do want to interact - and that word there, interact, is the crux of why I write.

In real life, I talk a lot.  But not often.  No.  I don't "interact" very much at all, because I don't think I'm all that interesting and I get the impression people would rather be doing something else.  I get interrupted a lot. I... Hold on. Bullet points would be better here!

1. I assume I'm boring because:
   a) people I'm talking to let other people interrupt me.
   b) they talk over me as if what I'm saying is unimportant.
   c) they're not listening anyway.
   
2. I can't make "small talk". I'm not really bothered where you bought your margarine, or how much your shoes cost.  I'm not concerned if your 8 year old son is playing netball this weekend.  I want to know why you don't see in five dimensions.  I want to hear your ghost stories.  I want to know where your atoms were before you were born.
   
3. When I speak, it's because I have something to add to a conversation or topic. Not because I need to fill silence and not because I want people to notice me.  If I wanted people to notice me, I'd dye my hair pink - but that would be bad. Very bad... because people would notice me. (For the wrong reasons!)

Whoa! - do you see what happened there??  I started off wanting to talk about me, changed it to talking about you (to be polite, and engage you) but immediately shifted back to talking about me!  How crass!  Sorry.  Where were we?

Oh yes - why do you write? What do you gain from committing your thoughts and inner quandaries to the public domain, the global forum?  Is it some form of catharsis?  Is it like a Catholic priest's confessional? Oh, wow!  Are you some Orator - like Socrates?  Or a Diarist - like Pepys??

What do you want to achieve?  Do you want people to read your words for entertainment? Do you want to inform? Do you want to make the World a better place?  Persuade someone through your clever use of argument to change their opinion? 

Maybe you're not a writer - maybe you prefer to read?  OK - in that case this post is only tenuously linked to you, but you could just substitute write for read, and carry on...

The most important question though, is, Why Are You Here? Are you looking for inspiration? Guidance?

Idle Curiosity? Did you search key-words in Google and click on my link or did you click Next... somewhere and end up here by mistake?  Are you searching for blogging enlightenment?  Are you looking for some inner wisdom?  Did you wake up this morning and think "Hang on a sec... Where DID the iron in my blood come from?"

(I can sort of answer that last one, but it'd have to be another time)

Why, why, WHY do you write?  Do you want to know why I write?  Because of this.  Because you - YOU, whoever you are, wherever you are, are right here... HERE... now.  I have touched your life for the (in the Universe's time-frame) briefest moment, and I have connected with you.  Two human beings coming together for a moment.  That is awesome, don't you think?  I have written something, and you are reading it right this moment!  You could be on the other side of the world in 2018, or on Mars Colony in 2156.  You are  listening to me speaking to you, and I am so happy because of this.  So very happy.

Why do I write?  Because I want to connect.  I just want to reach out and touch another person's mind, albeit briefly, and be there - just for a moment, and for that moment, be alive in their mind. I want to help them think, just for a fraction, about who they are, how they connect with other people - and if, as a result, they send someone a letter, or a text, or an email, and connect - then my writing has done what I hope it would do - inspire someone else to write.

So. Why do you write?

Why we never grow old

Today I want to broach the subject of why we never grow old.
"But that's rubbish Collywobs!  Of course we grow old."
Well, we do, but also we don't.

Our bodies age, sure - but tell me, what age are you in your head?  I bet you are somewhere between a late teenager and about 30.  My physical age is 53, but I still feel 30 ish.  I dream I can run and climb and parkour like I could when I was that age, and my physical appearance in my dreams is of that age.

I never dream that I am grey haired, over-weight and getting on in years.  That is only my physical body.
So while, biologically, my system is deteriorating, mentally I am a youth.

I know there are some pretty nasty illnesses out there that can rob us of this faculty, and I hope that one day we find a cure for them - because I believe nothing robs us of our dignity more, than losing our identity, memory and sense of self.  But as we age, I find it fascinating that our mental age never really changes beyond the age of 30 ish.  Why is that?

Science would say that we develop, mentally, in stages of 7 years - that the first 7 years we develop motor skills, speech and reasoning and so on.  From 7 to 14 we develop social skills, a sense of our own identity, and an idea of who we want to be.

From 14 to 21 we start to wonder where we fit in with the world, what do we want to do with our lives?  What career?  We discover the rest of the world and sometimes want to explore it.  We develop our sense of sexuality and understand our developing emotions.  And 21 to 28?  Well, by the time we get to 28, hopefully we're about where we want to be, with the person we want to be with, doing what we think we were born to do.

Now I know this is all very general and loose and glib, but I think once we reach this stage, our mind stops "growing".  That's not to say we don't develop our cognitive skills any more, or improve at all - but I think our mental clock that ticks our life away stops about then - it's almost like we've accelerated from nought to 28, and then we cruise.  I don't think we age (mentally) from then on.

So why is that?  I think it's a survival mechanism - similar to pushing through pain and not giving up.  If we allow ourselves to start dwelling on getting old, I think we would start expecting to feel old, and with that would come a sense of dread - Old Father Time and the Grim Reaper checking their schedule to pencil you in.  Instead, I think we remain young in our heads to keep us believing in a form of immortality, extending our own life expectancy, warding off the onset of old age. 

What do you think?