My assignment last week in English Comp was to freewrite for ten minutes straight, not stopping for spelling errors or punctuation errors or even when I ran out of thoughts. The topic was to freewrite concerning something that had angered or frustrated me in recent weeks:
False advertising, or at the very least, companies who don’t deliver what they propose to deliver. On-line education should be on-line. Many people have a multitude of reasons why traveling to a campus to sit in a traditional classroom is not conceivable. Single parents working full-time. Business travelers. Last semester I took a course with a soldier in Iraq. The war doesn’t stop for orientation. Remember the audience, be careful not to offend. Assuming knowledge that no offense is meant, on-line education and distance learning should be just that. I expect to receive what I pay for. The cable company is another entity that doesn’t deliver. Every month the price goes up, but no extra services are rendered. Perhaps they need to recoup all the money they lost in their white-collar scandal. Loads of consumers dissatisfied with them, and turning to satellite television instead. I wonder if that is a viable option for me. Do satellite television companies deliver what they say they will? What exactly do they promise? And how misleading are the cable television commercials when speaking about satellite services? The price of gas keeps going up; I think that’s the Republicans not delivering what we are paying for. I should probably stay away from the political. I wonder if my audience for these papers will be just the professor or if we will be ‘discussing’ ideas with our classmates. Ideas exchanged on-line, of course, from a distance. Distance learning should not be turned into an oxymoron. It’s extremely frustrating, and will quite probably result in my changing educational institutions. I wish I had defied my parents and obtained my education when I got out of high school 25 years ago in a traditional manner. There’s another thought…reasons people don’t go to college. Financial obstacles. Religious objection. The folly of youth.
Michael said...
Excellent stream-of-consciousness capture.
This is the sort of thing that you observe in zazen meditation, but do not attach to – you simply observe these thoughts passing in your head like a river. Eventually you learn to stay out of the river – to not grab onto one of those thoughts and stay with it, ride it to wherever it goes. The word “non-attachment” has a powerful meaning in Zen – the ability to let things happen without feeling judgment, without feeling the need to get involved, to try a “rescue,” or to attempt to alter anything. It’s a tough trick at first, but it’s pretty cool once you have the hang of it.
In another direction, this is the sort of writing that you look at in five years and marvel at your overall mood… Save this in your journal. It’s important. Don’t have a journal? Start one. This process of “education” is going to profoundly change your life in a good way, and it will be a powerful gift to yourself to have preserved a record of where you came from, and how long the journey was.
You go, girl!
Serena said:
Thanks! I just let it floooooooow. For my first paper (I described it in the post above), I started with freewriting, too.
I don't have a journal. I guess this blog is the closest thing I have to one. I feel more comfortable at a keyboard than with a pen and paper. I should rethink this, though. If this site decided to discontinue their service, my thoughts would be lost.
What do you think?
