The Muddled Process of First-Stage Writing

Knowledge is the key to the universe, isn't it?  It is never--as with any form of education--wasted.  Apart from the fact that our brains need exercise in order to flourish, we need knowledge in order to grow and reach our potential, don't we?   Hmm.   This could be the genesis of a thesis statement for a thoughtful essay, but at the moment I am in the middle of the most difficult part of the process for me--forming ideas, juggling ideas, sifting ideas, organizing ideas, and finally making sense of them--to myself.  To reach this stage, I have to write my ideas down, willy-nilly, in order to find their logic.   Otherwise, how can I know what I think until I see what I say? 

Knowledge is not only important to personal growth, it is important in any leadership role, isn't it?  To understand what needs to be done and the ability to state it to others, despite the idiosyncracies, strengths and weaknesses of the folks you're leading is paramount.

Editing, my favorite part of the writing process,  begins, of course, after I write everything down.   At this stage, I can come up with a cogent thesis.   I learned about this process from one of my English professors, and it's interesting, perhaps only to me, that I can effortlessly recall how to go about writing a paper, but I can no longer recall my professor's name.  Perhaps it will float up to my consciousness before I'm through here.

 If I were to write a paper on this topic, I think I would first define knowledge and then decide if it needed dividing into categories, such as information and insight and maybe intuition.   Then the whole would need to be organized so that my brain can grasp what I'm struggling to say.   Right now, my ideas are so amorphous that they are ever-so-slightly out of reach.     This is always the state of my brain at the very beginning of any essay.

Can knowledge ever be detrimental?    I wonder if my mother would have supported my father's desire to emigrate to Australia if she'd known the hardships that lay ahead for her?  But this is not knowledge, is it?   I am attempting to look into the future and then to roll around in 20/20 hindsight.   What on earth am I trying to say?  

Donald P. Hall, Ph.D.    My professor's name.