A Post a Day in May #30: What happens?

I have pledged to write a new post for this blog every day in May. 

Virginia Woolf wrote in 1929 that a woman needs a room of her own in which to write; this is possibly the best known or most popular quote by the author. But I learned recently of another one that is running a close second for me these days. 

“Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.” I also came across it as, “Nothing has really happened until it has been described.” She apparently said this to a young writer. 

Regardless of the specific verb Woolf used, I like the intent of this, to my mind, acute observation. Though not to be taken literally — for the cat shrieks when its tail is pulled, whether or not the pain is recorded or described, the act surely occurred — Woolf’s intent must have been that to understand the meaning of the act (or event, occurrence, situation, etc.) one must reflect on it, give words to the experience and, in so doing, bring understanding to it. 

A room of my own for Five Years a Writer

Our world these days is happening at such a fast pace, it seems impossible to find the time to give thought to what happens, to search for meaning in the many things we experience in any given day. But I think we rush through the hours at our peril. 

If we read a book only as the act of moving our eyes across the words on the page to pass the time and then reach for the next book on the pile, has the writer’s intent reached us? Without reflection on the meaning of the story (whatever it might be), we miss out on understanding what that author wanted to share, and I wonder if the book has truly been read.  

Having this blog to house my writing and setting myself the challenge of putting up one post every day in May has, for this third year in a row, forced me to think about what is happening in my everyday and to contemplate what it means for me — and what it might spark for others. 

The process of looking as much outward as inward is rewarding for me; it encourages me to make sense of thoughts both fleeting and deep-rooted, of experiences both big and small, and of ideas both weighty and light — and then to shape my understanding into words that others might wish to read and, possibly, to contemplate. 

Dear Reader, with this penultimate post for this May, I hope I have fulfilled the brief I laid out on May 1st. 

To be continued 

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