Back in the Saddle

Earlier this evening, Christina reminded me that I'd left a cliffhanger on this site about a month ago and never made good on my promise. Since I'm sure that by now that no one bothers checking for updates, I expect I'm writing for myself.

As of this precise moment, I've been inspired. Scott McKnight (author, professor, theologian, and deeply pastoral blogger) posted some new thoughts on the "how" and the "why" of his practice of writing. Noting the time of his post (2:32am), I feel it appropriate to consumate my inspiration while it still grips my soul, before I drift off to sleep. As the centrepiece of my renewed blogging, let me quote Professor McKnight:

Writing is not something to do when everything else is cleared off the desk; no, it is something that makes order of the desk. I don’t get up wondering what I will write about, but I write about what I’m wondering. (That’s almost Chestertonian.) In other words, as Augustine spoke of “faith seeking understanding,” so writing is a pen seeking understanding.

When I began this blog, in the midst of a Canadian election I felt like I had something to say. While I wrote almost exclusively on the election and on politics, I thought my commentary might help my friends engage in a more meaningful way. So I wrote. Canada Votes 2006 rolled into the beginnings of the conservative government which rolled into the fledgeling Liberal leadership race. At that point, my life rolled into one big anxiety attack and I stopped blogging.

With my transition from my job back into my role as a student this fall, I hoped to find more time to write. When I announced the imminent return to blogging, and with it a change in focus and subject matter, it was was the intention of doing this "on the side." Much of the lack of execution on these hopes can be explained by Scott's observation:

I don’t write “on the side.” Many take up careers, most often as professors or sometimes editors or pastors, with the plan to write “on the side.” Most editors I know struggle, once they become editors, to write on the side. Not enough time, and the best hours of the day already consumed. And most pastors don’t have time, nor the practice, to write on the side. What might surprise many of you is that the vast majority of professors also don’t write “on the side.” Why?

My explanation is simple: writing can’t be done on the side...

This fall I've been thinking much of writing more and have fondly remembered my early days as a student; I've wished for these days, when I carried my journal everywhere and pondered nearly every subject to which I could pose a question. Unfortunately, I've attempted to restore that passion for writing in the hours left over when the day is finished, when I'm tired and ready to turn in for the night. It should be then no suprise that these attempts have been unsuccessful.

The rejection of writing "on the side" has brought into focus how much I have missed living as a writer lives and seeing the world as words yet unwritten. I plan to start carrying my journal again, to start large question again, to start blogging again. Meanwhile, I wouldn't be suprised if this change might help stave off the sleeplessness I've been struggling with of late.

Scott, thank you for sharing these thoughts, they've spurred at least one more writer back into the saddle of exposition and prose.