Down:

I can tell you why I came here (sorry, this isn't an answer to your concern about posts being deleted or blocked).

My wife went to see the movie, Freedom Writers, last weekend. I thought it was good. It documented the good that can come from freely expressing your feelings (and the causes of those feelings) to people who will listen with concern to your situation and your sorrow. The students were certainly in emotionally frustrating situations--they hated each other; they hated their violent situations; they had a lot of needs that were not being met and they had little hope their dreams would ever come true.

The young, inexperienced teacher, however, asked each student to write about their lives. After some hesitation the frustrations pored out. Each student's hurt or rage or dispair became understandable to their classmates, who had been viewed as an enemy. The writing became the students' therapy, their way of finding their way out of their mess.

They didn't know who Anne Frank was but the teacher suggested they read her book, The Diary of a Young Girl, and they quickly felt for this teenager who wrote about her life and then died in an awful and socially hateful situation. Anne wrote to make sense out of her life. What she wrote touched and helped millions who read her words. The students in Freedom Writers gradually made sense of their lives and found solutions...many used new insight and knowledge to go to college, instead of dropping out of school and joining gangs. (See the article by Anna Quindlen in the latest Newsweek magazine.)

That is what I am hoping you can do by reading and posting on PC. Anna Quindlen says everyday writing about real life is for everyone. She asks if we shouldn't all write a journal or our life story. What a wonderful gift to pass on to people we have loved...and hated...admired ...and lost touch with. I am remembering how many people have told me that they wanted to write their life story. Few have sent me a copy. Why not in the spare moments in the evening or when our heart hurts or when you ache to do something really daring or worthwhile?

Start by going to see the movie.

drclay