Echoing Silence
As we are all in the last stages of doing our final packets I thought I would offer a word of advice, inspiration, I recently found. This is from Thomas Merton, from a new anthology of his that has recently been put together, entitled, Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton and the Vocation of Writing. This little piece has meant the world to me recently.
"If a writer is so cautious that he/she never writes anything that cannot be criticized, he will never be able to write anything that can be read. If you want to help other people, you have got to make up your mind to write things that some men will condemn."
"If a writer is so cautious that he/she never writes anything that cannot be criticized, he will never be able to write anything that can be read. If you want to help other people, you have got to make up your mind to write things that some men will condemn."
posted by Dar Al-Morazz at 8:32 AM
2 Comments:
That's an excellent quote, Dar - one that's apropos to our coming residency.
Thomas Merton - an interesting monk, to be sure. I've got a copy of "Wisdom of the Desert" less than a good spit-ball's distance away.
Have you heard of the book "The Life You Save May Be Your Own?" The title comes from a Flannery O'Connor short story; however, this book is an examination of how Catholic faith played out in the work of O'Connor, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy and Dorothy Day.
I'm not a Catholic nor an advocate of any specific faith but theology and lit and faith are fascinating and this book is a good find.
best
mc
RE:
"If you want to help other people, you have got to make up your mind to write things that some (wo)men will condemn."
Oh, god(dessque) bless you!
I'll take it a step further: personally, I made up my mind to write some things that I will condemn.
Free up everything to get to the good.
Define good.
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