My favourite authors are those that continually offer me moments of clarity and insight such as I cannot find anywhere else. A book like Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media offers me at least as many of these moments as C S Lewis Mere Christianity. These moments are ones in which an effect occurs that is not unlike those physical experiences of having a chiropractor or some other body doctor put things "back in their place". You can not do for yourself what a chiropractor can do for you – at least I’ve never tried since I would fear being stranded for days unnoticed over a the bed or chair that I was using as my assistance prop. You can tell a doctor the general area in which you feel discomfort and he from his knowledge and experience will know generally, and sometimes precisely where to push, pull, squeeze or stretch. What these authors do for me is the same but on an intellectual level. There are things about myself that are a mystery to me, and I have long wondered about their source and searched for their cause. There are things that have put this or that part of my spiritual and intellectual body out of their place, and when I read certain works by these authors the bones of my mind seem to slip nearer to their proper places.
For example, I have always experienced - and still do to an extent - great angst when using, or especially preparing to use the telephone. While reading "Understanding Media" I think I came to understand at least in part why this is. I grew up in a home in which text was of supreme importance. I have been surrounded by and have enjoyed books my entire life. My father had a large library, the church we attended had a library, and of course growing up in a very Protestant environment, being the people of the book, I was wonderfully influenced to seek knowledge through the written word. Written words can be read, re-read, underlined, pondered and then read again – in other words: books move at the pace of the reader. There is always time to think about what’s going on. Not so with the telephone – you have one chance to get it right; you cannot proofread or edit what you are about to say and once it is said there is no taking it back, no editing.
I have also always had an aversion to performance. Those of you who know me are saying "yeah, right!" OK, I should say "public performance" as I enjoy nothing more than performing for a group of friends in order that we can all be entertained. But performance, of music in particular, happens in sequential, irrevocable moments; moments that, unlike text, cannot be re-written before they are consumed by an audience. One cannot correct a performance error like one can re-read a paragraph to correct a misunderstanding.
The greatest thing these authors and their works offer me is opportunities for self-discovery and therefore self-correction and personal betterment. My strengths lie in working with text, which is why I have always enjoyed writing songs more than performing them. It is also the reason I feel so entirely at peace when I am putting pen to paper. Am I an author? It is a word I hold in such high esteem I hesitate to use it as a self-descriptor. Am I a writer? Well, in the words of Madeleine L’Engle, whose book “Walking on Water : Reflections on Faith and Art” is one of my most cherished writing resources: “As long as I write, I am a writer".
