Can Everyone But Us Really Write?

“Have you read Time 100? It is depressing as much as it is amazing. I don't know which one should come first”

In college, writing —for me— changed from behavior of documenting into behavior of surviving. I lived in a house in which every single person is good at writing. Everyday there was always some new essay assignments. I spent years reading, admiring their works and thinking mine will never be as good as theirs. The whole time, I was being paranoid that they would make fun of my works. I put passwords on all of my essay documents. I named my essay folders ‘family businesses’ as placebo and even placed interesting folders (including porn) next to it as distractions for potential intruders. Not once have I the courage to ask them for feedbacks. And years of paying attention on how their skill grew and evolved multiplied my insecurities exponentially. I didn’t even have the nerve to ask them to read my final paper until Leg and Ten saved me one day away from my deadline. The two of them strongly ignored me, took my files away and read them. My work was mutilated on various pages. Even so, I still continued hiding my works afterwards.

After graduated, I continued writing no more than as mean of documenting my thoughts. As I was still hiding my works I decided to end my fear. I decided to get it over with and let people mutilate my words. And that was my 2003 New Year’s resolution, hence this blogger. On daily basis, I have them uploaded and have some people read and critize them. Though ‘insults’ came from all over directions, I felt relax now that I am finally out in the open.

Some years ago, at some bookstore, I read a book of which title I forgot that said writing behavior is so natural it is encoded in our genes as one of our survival equipments. Some part of our brain responsible for sexual instinct and behaviors are actually also working when we write. In fact, our sexual behaviors itself, being aimed to create successors, are actually writing behaviors (encrypting even) of genetic codes. Though convincing experimental evidences were exposed on the text, I found it hard to believe such statement was true. I can easily spot numerous of people around me who writes more embarrassing than I do. Most people even said that they don’t even know what to say in oral, let alone in writing.

Writing seems to be so natural that it may come out abnormally. Alice Flaherty, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital wrote a book, The Midnight Disease[1], about how and why we write. Interestingly, Flaherty suffered hypergraphia —a disorder of whom the sufferer constantly has the urge to write. Flaherty writes whenever (morning, day, night, night, and night) and wherever (on a piece of paper, her handkerchief, her office table, her clothes, even worse, on toilet walls).

If writing is so natural, why do people find it hard to do? Maybe it was right. One of my leisure activities is watching behind-the-scene interviews from any movies of my DVD collections. It always amazes me how everyone (directors, actors, actresses, costume designers: everyone) is able to analyze and interpret the characters articulately. Most of the local actors and actresses I know can only tell fragments —descriptive part of the movie (fragments which I finally see them myself), and they do that in stutters and deformed grammar. If speech is such a problem, it is no mystery that the same is applied to writing. Maybe the problem was not that the research was wrong, but because of the speech problems they have, the research findings can’t be applied to them.

It was depressing watching local TV to find out that almost everyone interviewed was babbling nonsense. It was more depressing watching "non-local" TV to find out that everyone interviewed speaks crystal-clearly, and crystal-comprehensive, (and sharp, too). Do these articulate people write as beautiful as they speak? I spent months browsing the web, looking for any writing by these people. I found very few, but I did find many school papers written by “non-local students”. As I suspected —and feared— they do write good works.

Reading Time 100[2] added up my desperation. I was okay reading Henry Kissinger’s article on his fellow junior Secretary of State, Condeleezza Rice. I was also okay finding out article on Martha Stewart’s comeback from prison was written by fellow CEO Donald Trump.

It was okay when a president writes about their fellow president, politician about their fellow politician, CEO about their fellow CEO, but many articles are shocking me not only because what was written, but who wrote them. Lisa Marie Presley (yes, The King’s daughter) wrote well about Melissa Etheridge strength as a singer, songwriter, and most of all, cancer survivor. Bob Geldof (of whom I admired since 14 years old) pulled a great job describing Chancellor Gordon Brown’s persistent fight for Africa. Sure both Presley and Geldof write song, but isn’t writing a composition a different thing? Wife of Christopher Reeve, Dana, wrote about Robert Klein, who fights to make stem-cell research comes true. How should I know the wife of Superman writes something super? Sean Penn wrote about the patient and courageous Clint Eastwood (Sean Penn the crazy actor?). And the article on Michael Schumacher’s physical strength and highly intellectual personality was crafted by Nick Mason, Pink Floyd’s drummer. What is more confusing than a drummer writing about a Formula One racer?

All these people I found on the internet and magazines; is this true? Do these people write that well? I’m not talking writing as a career and I already feel like I’m at the bottom of the food chain.
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[1] You can find his book at QB bookstore. I read it there page to page. If you see only one left available, please leave it be. I’m thinking of buying it.

[2] Time 100 is Time Magazine's special issue in which short articles famous people were written by another famous people. Both the writer and the people whose story is being written are carefully selected by team of editors. On this edition I fell in love the most with two articles.

The first was an article about Burt Rutan, a spaceship maker who thinks that space travel should be for public and therefore built such ship. The article was done by James Lovell, the very astronaut who flew Apollo 13 of which character was played by Tom Hanks in the Ron Howard’s Apollo 13.

The second was the one about Robert Klei. Klei fought for the visibility of stem-cell research (physical therapy to make healing paralyzed people possible). He fought it side by side with the late Christopher Reeve. The article was written in full admiration and gratitude by Dana Reeve, Chris’ wife.