Need for Screed

Need for Screed
Daily writing prompt
What do you enjoy most about writing?

It’s kind of wild to me that writing was invented around 3200 BC for the completely soulless purpose of documenting transactions, trade of goods, and keeping administrative records. We should therefore appreciate that some brave and enterprising souls, probably at risk of life and limb, broke the mould and started using the art more creatively.

Ever since I can remember, even before I formally started schooling, I loved the idea of putting down thoughts, emotions, ideas, and completely indecipherable doodles on paper that others could read, enjoy, scratch their heads in bewilderment, or even rage at. Back then, it didn’t even matter to me whether anyone understood it or not. That, of course, has changed.

We have been compelled in modern times to make ourselves painstakingly comprehensible, especially on matters of grave importance, because humans have an undeniable capacity to intentionally misunderstand or misconstrue. However, there are still avenues for writing like poetry and lyrics for music that don’t have to make complete sense to everyone. And that is what I find very attractive about writing.

More intriguingly, however, is the fact that we can commit to paper or other media some of our most creative (or destructive) thoughts, emotions, ideas, desires, fears, hates, and passions for others to consume at leisure, over significant periods of time and space. After all, leaving a legacy, moreover, a written one, has consumed mankind for ages.

And so I will continue this tradition, hoping that someone, somewhere, will take the time to read.

5 responses to “Need for Screed”

  1. greatplates1 Avatar

    Love this! You must have read Sapiens.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. lenny unencumbered Avatar

      Actually, I abandoned reading Sapiens around the midway point because I found Yuval’s exoneration of colonialism disturbing.
      Also while reading the book, Israel had started its grotesque military retaliation in Gaza, and Yuval was quite sympathetic to their at the time.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. lenny unencumbered Avatar

        … sympathetic to their cause…

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Mary K. Doyle Avatar

    Writing probably evolved from the need to tell stories, like cave people drawing on the walls. A good and thoughtful post, Lenny.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. lenny unencumbered Avatar

      Yes, it probably did evolve into that from its original dreary purpose.

      Liked by 2 people

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Lenny, here

Join me as I contemplate a bewildering world through empathy, understanding, and a touch of irreverence.

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