Seeing Life on Paper

I have nothing to do. What I have discovered, though this little enterprise of mine, is that I actually enjoy writing. I don’t even care if no one reads it. I have nothing to do so I take out my laptop from its little hiding place (yeshiva rules. You know how it is), pop it open, and stare at Microsoft Word. That little line just goes ‘blink.. blink.. blink.. blink…’ and my mind remains about as blank as the digital paper in front of me. Then I start to wonder. When someone likes to write and they do so, what the heck is the point? What’s filling up this paper w/ my perspective of whatever non-important event that someone may or may not read or care about, going to do for me other than fill up this void in time in which I have nothing to do?

Since I came to Australia and decided to write about the adventures and misfortunes that are to be had here, I found myself looking for things to write about. And like all consistent mental exercises, it started to change the way I think. I no longer just see stuff around me; rather I see the things around me as they could be written on paper.

The way things can be written on paper. Pictures are instant, paper requires a lot of words, words require thought, thoughts require perception, and that perception requires you to see things in more detail and with greater depth. In other words; with appreciation.

Looking for something to write about becomes a passive activity after a while, and in turn so does that appreciation for the details and depth for life around you; A woman in funny clothes. That guy playing the weird instrument by the train station. The clop clop clop of the horse and buggies on Swanson street. The DING DING of the green and white trams. The lady who seems to pop up everywhere and talk to you for half an hour. A spider on the zal ceiling. The divine looking clouds outside the window during shiur. They guy who just walked past me playing music on his cell phone. And even right now as I write; the encompassing sound of a rain that just started to pour.

I see all these things on paper

That only comes through writing.

What’d ya know…

…I filled up the paper.