Reflecting on Commitment, Creativity, and Curiosity
This weekend was one of those weekends where I could not motivate myself to sit down to do any writing. So, rather than be productive, I ended up being entirely unproductive. However, knowing that I didn’t want to fall behind on my posts and keep up my personal goal of writing at least one post per week motivated me to sit down and write again. A personal commitment that no one is or has enforced upon me has kept me going week after week. No one is beating down my door for me to get my next post out. It has been a simple way for me to achieve a few things in my life that I find valuable and help develop personal discipline in the process. So, this week, I will share some of the reasons why I love to write.
It helps me be creative.
Creativity is something I’ve long tried to foster and grow. It has pushed me to write fantasy stories that are likely never to see the light of day, and it helps me to think outside the box when I face challenges within both my work and personal life.
It keeps me accountable.
When I first sit down to write, I often find that I genuinely feel like I have nothing to say, yet as I begin to write, the words begin to spill out, and the ideas begin to flow. So often, rather than relying on motivation to write, I fall back on I don’t want to quit. My commitment to myself is to do the “thing,” whatever that thing may be for me. unfortunately this weekend, I failed to hold myself accountable, and I am writing it on Monday rather than on Saturday as is typically my practice. Yet even this failure is a chance for me to share and process and try to understand what it was that kept me from being motivated to do the things that I do very much enjoy.
Taking inventory of my mind.
Over the last eleven years, I have had a job that generally allows me a lot of time to think, often while sitting behind a windshield. But this has become a practice I try to do actively. I try to inventory the things and ideas percolating in my mind. I try to understand where the ideas come from. Are they my ideas, or am I repeating the ideas of someone else? Are these ideas healthy, or are they ideas that drive me to a depressed state? These and many other questions are the things I try to ponder as I write, as I spend time in silence with no music or any other medium of entertainment. It is simply me and my thoughts.
Often, in the act of writing, I try to refine these ideas and make them my own. I generally listen to half a dozen podcast episodes from various content creators every week. Many of these creators hold worldviews with which I disagree. One of my favorite podcasts is the “Modern Wisdom” podcast. Many of the guests that are brought onto the podcast have an evolutionary worldview, so when they talk about “psychology,” they approach it from that perspective, and while I disagree with their worldview, the diagnosis and findings are often well-founded based on rigorous studies. I honestly think that if I had gone to college, I would have gone into neuroscience, social psychology, or developmental psychology. I find the interactions of humans utterly fascinating, and understanding the things that are under the hood, so to speak, that influence how we interact with the world and people is extraordinarily complex.
Learning to be articulate
I’ve written on this before, but part of my reason for writing is to organize my beliefs and then learn to write or speak them concisely. I try my best to be someone who holds ideas that have been well-sifted. I think this comes partly from a personal insecurity of having often felt stupid because I didn’t go to school, and so, in an attempt to avoid looking like a fool, I try to compensate. Another reason for being articulate is that I do not want to be a verbal bully, something I have been and done sometimes intentionally and other times accidentally. But this isn’t who I want to be. I don’t want to wield a verbal cudgel, beating people over the head with facts and logic. I’d rather be like a verbal surgeon and be able to see and cut through to the heart of a problem with precision and not cause unnecessary hurt and wounds. I know myself well enough to know that if I am not careful, I can steamroll someone in a conversation and unintentionally hurt them.
Learning to be curious about everything
Writing is also a way for me to digest the things I learn throughout each week, and so it allows me to put these ideas in my own words and then allows me to continue to foster a mindset that is continuously curious and interested in learning new ideas. I want always to be open to learning new ideas while also challenging those ideas with the knowledge and wisdom of the Bible and of those who have mentors in my life who have shared their own insights and wisdom into these ideas.
This is a list of some of the reasons why I write beyond the simple fact that I enjoy it. I hope they have been insightful and helped you to consider perhaps picking up a pen for yourself and learning to take hold of your own mind, thoughts, and ideas. It truly is incredible how the act of writing can silence a chaotic mind.
This week, I do actually have a few podcasts I want to share once again, as there were a couple I listened to this week that I found to be very interesting.
Mary Eberstadt - Did The Sexual Revolution Actually Benefit Women
I very much enjoyed this podcast episode as Mary approaches the conversation of the sexual revolution from both a Christian and Academic perspective. I have heard from other authors and speakers on this subject, but I thought she did a great job of discussing it in a way where it didn't seem as though she was just trying to beat you over the head with her religious beliefs. Something I can appreciate.
Some key points from this episode.
The sexual revolution taught women to act like the worst versions of men.
"No one talks about the effect that the sexual revolution has had on children because we already know, and it's too depressing to talk about."
There were many other great ideas and points discussed within this podcast, and I would definitely recommend checking it out for yourself.
Lisa Cotter - Understanding the Christian Teaching on Women
This was another great episode from Lila. I truly think the conversations she is having are incredibly helpful in helping young people understand the culture and the landmines that have been created with identity politics.
Some key points from this episode
Feminine Genius: This is such a cool idea. The way Lisa describes this idea is that women are a creature that is physically designed to nurture. That they are designed to receive and multiply that which they receive. Women are designed to take into themselves what is given to them, and through this reception, they create life within themselves. I thought this was such a cool idea as it reminded me of another idea I heard that said, “If you give a woman a house, she will make you a home.” I really am not doing the idea justice and would recommend you give this podcast episode a listen.
Masculine Genius: The cool thing is that the man, too, has his role, and it is to give or to produce the seed. Where the woman faces inward, the man faces outward. He instead creates the seed. He creates the environment that allows for the new life. Men have a natural desire to build to create seeds for greater things. Men have, for all of recorded history, been the cultivators of the world. They have created societies and built civilizations through which they could provide and protect those they cared for. Men have, for all of history, been the door guard of the home, whereas the woman protects those things within the home. She nurtures and loves the children, protecting them. She also nurtures and protects her husband from reputational damage and protects his heart, for he has given it to her. The Man again faces outward, and he is warding off the world and destroying all that would cross the threshold of his home where his heart lives.
As I was listening to this, I found it genuinely incredible to consider these ideas and to see how God once again shows His hand and how His design shows through in the human creature in so many incredible ways! We are naturally drawn to be the things He created us to be. Even as our world rebels against His design and demands that we are interchangeable. The facts can not be escaped that we are extraordinarily different in truly incredible ways, and the more we learn, the more we see how He designed us male and female, each a creature that is uniquely capable of reflecting a piece of Him and only through their union can this creature come closest to God in the creation of new life.
Thank you all once more for joining me. Please consider subscribing and sharing this with a friend.
