WHY DO I WRITE?

Most people I've known since birth asked me this question. Why do I write? It seems absurd to answer certain query but perhaps very memorable. Whenever someone ask me this question, I answered them, "because its fun!" But really, why do a writer, such as me write different things in a certain/uncertain subject matter?

When I was in my highschool days, I hate writing and reading stuff. For me, its just a waste of time. But as I grew up and mature, I began thinking, "what would it be like to be a writer or an artist?" It is different and extinct, but quite unique! With that point-of-view, I began reading a lot of books and start searching and even making some short stories. I'm a very imaginative person, most of my friends told me so. But what is the sense of having this kind of imagination if I can't put it in a peice of paper and let other people read it.

For me, an imagination is a form of art, an art in mind which can't be criticize and making it your own. No one can dictate, control, or even desparage it. As long as you can craft such, you can make it as your own without even thinking of others. "I even imagined that I'm a long lost brother of a well-know star!"- presumptious but cool. A writer once told me that "a great writer can use any information he can get, but the basis of the writer's art is not his skill but his willingnss to write, his desire to write, in fact his inability not to write." which for me is totally true. As to think of it, the sense of having a skill is not just for you but for other people. On how to use it, in times of obstacles, challenges, difficulties, and even happiness. Writing is not an escape from reality. As a matter of fact, it is a plunge into reality. Writers are the one who have hope in the world; if you as a person doesn't have a hope, then don't mind writing. It would just be a waste of time.

Just remember, to those who aspired of being a writer, writing is a form of art, and the ones who write are the artist who perhaps can be a priest, or a kind of magician, or even a kind of scientist, fascinated to the meanings that lie beneath the surface of the world. Writing is a noble task, it's like exploring the meanings in life which is for me, a very noble act.

As of me, I write because it is meaningful. Its meaning may be in the violent, rather vicious process by which it is created. I write because it is a noble act, I for one is ordained to a noble task, that of making clear mysteries, or pointing out mysteries where a numbing and inaccurate simplicity has held power. I write because I want to explain, explain the things in my mind, argue, and apparently create a crazy action.

My story is its meaning, that is all. That for me, any short story can become a novel, and any novel can be converted back into a short story or into a poem. Reality for me is fluid and monstrous; packaging it up in as many shapes a possible, put names on it, publishing it in hard-cover, and maybe make it a movie someday. But the very important thing in writing, is your HEART, which drives me into an inspiraton. Which gives its true subject that write itself, and cannot be silenced.

"writers write, eventually; but first they feel."

Gandhi: Philippines Saint of a Lifetime

Perhaps, I am writing here today in order for me and for us to give rise and honor to a certain man. A man with dignity in his principles, a man who made history by uniting a war from religion, and a man that through times, show courage and stubbornness on what he believes is right. He is no other than Mahatma Gandhi.

In his life, we’ve learned. In his speeches we've shown affection, and in his value, we gave thanks on the things that he gave to inspire people not just in India, but in the whole world. Gandhi is no human, but a saint. A saint who cares no less on the equality of human beings. Most often, we follow different path, a path that may lead us on the future in great value or a path that may give us heartache and sadness. Hence, the dignity of a person, no matter how many pathways that he/she may take in, comes by following the person in right direction. Most likely, by studying the history of man and nature, by studying the philosophy of different people, a person, no matter how smart and rich he is, is useless if he would rise as a dreadful example to everyone.

Mahatma Gandhi once says, “Where there is injustice, I always believe in fighting. The question is, do you fight to change things or to punish? If you really want to change things, there are many things to do it then”. This, what I noticed about history, what I love about history is that, it teaches me the right and wrong, the unnoticed and noticed, and the great people in all times. Our country, may have suffered a lot with differences in religion, money, status, but what is really important is to change this things by fighting this cruel life in a peaceful means as possible. We may get things complicated, or make it worst, but what is important is that, we’ve learned from it, and do it again, but this time, into the right direction. Just remember, “What we can do, we will try to do, no matter how hard it is.”

God didn’t create us to fight; we were created, to give joy and importance on the things that He made. I may just be a student, but I want this article to be an inspiration to everyone of us. As I’ve seen an inspiration that may change our beliefs. I hope, here in the Philippines, Gandhi emerges, that will give rise and changes to the hegemony that one’s been develop by culture and history. I don’t want to compare Gandhi with our heroes such as Jose Rizal or Gat Andres Bonifacio, but they are all  the same in the belief that “the world is full of people who will despise what’s happening here, it is their (in hegemony) strength that we need.”

Our country may be in dangerous status quo, and civil war may happen, (especially in Mindanao) people may consider this as terrorism, but what’s really happening is lack of faith and trust to everyone. That we don’t consider everyone as equal. All nations certain religious minorities, like other countries, ours will have its problems. But they will be ours, and ours to be resolve. Furthermore, to gain independence, we must prove worthy of it! I said this because, despite the fact that Filipinos have gained independence with different colonizers such as Spain, United States, and Japanese, it never ends. We, Filipinos don’t have independence, because we close our path into a certain wall. Wall of madness, wall of minorities, wall of religion, and wall of status. In what direction, if we obtain our freedom by murder or bloodshed, we don’t want to be part of it. We should resist it. Because by joining it, would make us, no other difference than them.

History will tell us, that the truth and love will always win. There have been tyrants and murderers and, for a time, they can seem invisible, but in the end, they always fall. We learned but never use it; we love but never show it. In times, this will end, but it will never lose. I know our country, have never been ready for independence, that our country still suffers. In corruption, pollution, and poverty which are the worst form of violence, but this may end, if we just realize that our pride and honor should go first. That our principle should be developing, and with our path we stand, just life faith. Revenge may lead us to a wrong direction as “an eye for an eye can make the whole world blind.” Would it be foolish that war would stop for the sake of our children? If we don’t stop, they may be the next generation murderer, or they may be the next generation Gandhi.

Now choose. Do you want your child to be like the others, or to be different than the others? Just remember, “Winners don’t do different things, but they do things differently.”