What do I care enough about to write about every day for 2 years?
I am one month into a project where I’ve committed to two years of writing every day for at least 20 minutes or 1,000 words. At first, I didn’t know where this would take me; while I’ve been well-educated in writing and have an aptitude for language (so I feel I have a voice), I’ve never felt the strong pull of passion, or a calling, or a vocation (so I don’t feel like I have a topic). Because of this, I’ve never been able to identify as a blogger or imagine what it would take to write a book.
But I do identify with Flannery O’Connor, who said, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” Just a single month of writing every day has given me more clarity into what I think, what I care about, and the path I’d like to take.
Over the last month I have found my thoughts turning to existential, philosophical matters more than anything else: what makes a life good, upright, worthy, and meaningful? I have not extensively studied philosophy, and I don’t currently believe there is a great deal of value to be found in philosophically discussing the nature of reality or knowledge. (For those of you who enjoy the terms, I am more interested in ethics than I am in metaphysics or epistemology, though of course there is some interdependence between the three.) I mostly want to avoid getting sucked into endless conversations about the definitions of things, which so effectively distract from actually thinking about how people should live. In short, I wouldn’t characterize a life spent debating definitions as “good.”
Just because I’m writing every day doesn’t mean I’ll publish that often: compared to traditional blogs about, say, allergen-free cooking or succulents or planted aquariums, I have somewhat less control over how often I will have realizations significant enough to share, but I will post them when I do. I assume that as I write more, I will know more about what I think, so posts should theoretically increase in frequency as time goes on.
I have no special wisdom, so I’m not trying to teach philosophical lessons or shape myself into anything even remotely resembling a guru. I’ll just be sharing some thoughts about the path I find myself on. I hope those of us who want to do the hard work of learning what makes life meaningful recognize it is a lesson each of us must teach ourselves, even if we can help each other along the path.
If this journey I am embarking on sounds like it may be interesting or valuable to you, I would be honored and humbled if you came along. If so, please follow, comment, or contact me outside Medium (contact info is in my bio). Thank you for reading, and for wanting to spend well the handful of years you’ve been given. I look forward to seeing you out there.
