How much do you write by hand anymore? The keyboard has taken over our communication and the written letter has almost faded from existence. I know that when I write for a period of time my hand cramps up. The muscle memory is long gone. I can’t imagine sitting in an exam room writing for three hours. How did I do that?
One particular place that I think the pen should hit paper and not the keyboard though…is ranting. I’m guilty, though I try to curb it. But when frustrated or angry it seems like everyone hits the keyboard and then hits send. Maybe it’s an email, maybe it’s a blog post. Again, guilty as charged, I’ve done both. I try really, really hard to write a response when I’m angry, and then fire it into drafts. I’ll sit on it for hours, or days, depending on how angry I am and how venomous I’ve become in responding to whatever attack I’ve endured that has made me so angry. Hitting send too fast can be deadly. Emails are misinterpreted without body language, and internet posts are there forever. Blog postings or responses to them should be no worse than what you would say to that person face to face. Ranting is unprofessional, and makes the ranter look ridiculous usually. The writings are cached or mirrored somewhere, ready to be dragged out of the depths to humiliate, hurt, or remind you of the foolish need to hit back when hit. Knee jerk reactions are bad….bad, bad, bad.
So how can you vent and get therapy without making yourself look foolish in the process? Well, for one, DON’T blog it unless you mark it private, for your eyes only. But even then…it’s stored somewhere out in cyberspace…not totally secure.
If holding it in will make you explode…do what we used to do way back when, before computers (gasp! was there such a time?)
Remember the diary? The Journal? The secret place that you wrote down all your thoughts, good and bad? Why did we stop? it’s therapeutic and later you can look back at it and laugh at how petty you were being….but you aren’t embarrassed…because no one else saw it! It doesn’t come back to haunt you. Your friend/boss/colleague won’t catch wind of whatever you said in anger.
I picked up a cute journal on one of my trips State-side recently, it’s called “In My Humble Opinion”
I think this book and I could be great friends.