"That was a way of putting it--not very satisfactory." --T.S. Eliot, "East Coker"

I'm often frustrated by students who don't want to speak in class because they're afraid of saying something wrong. I tell them, we need to speak our ideas, even our wrong ones, because it's only in conversation that we refine our positions. I tell them that we write in order to discover what we think. Last night a friend was telling me about his nervousness at writing his ideas because he's afraid of offending someone or saying something wrong, and I thought the same thing. Beginnings are usually awkward, and yet still necessary.

But I often don't follow my own advice. How often have I avoided posting something on Livejournal because I don't have the time to do a proper job of it, to really express what I really mean? I wait until I have time or until the thought is more refined, but what really happens is that I don't end up writing anything at all.

My new philosophy is going to be to keep writing in order to discover what I think. Regardless of how awkward or ill-phrased it may be at first.