The Freedom To Write by Dennis Murphy


The Freedom To Write by DENNIS MURPHY
Article Posted: 08/23/2012
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Articles Written: 276 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR
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The Freedom To Write

Education

I like writing about whatever I choose. Too often we are tasked with writing something someone else wants; this takes the edge off the passion. For this assignment, I'm "free as a bird." And what do I choose to write about - being free to choose whatever I want to write about. The beauty of this is that each of us has such an incredible experiential base that we could write about almost anything. I didn't realize this until I was in my 50's. Before this I was only able to write about topics linked to my career - meteorology. Then my wife was stricken with breast cancer. We all know this only happens to other people. Suddenly it hit home. To cope, I found myself learning more about breasts than I ever intended to. As I told my wife, I was okay just knowing about the packaging. But write I did. And the story, filled with human dimensions as well as medical information, wound up on the pages of the Washington Post. Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from someone in Tibet thanking me for writing the story! His wife had just been stricken and my story helped him deal with the situation. After my wife was on the road to recovery (about three years after her diagnosis), someone hired me to write weekly online science-based stories about environmental topics. Suddenly I had to write about forest fires, swans that were stuck in oil spills and rivers that were polluted. I was suddenly challenged to write even further outside my comfort zone. And I think I blossomed. Next came a career choice that involved writing educational science content. Okay, I could handle that. But then I also had to write, direct, edit and help layout a monthly educational science magazine. I had to know about Lewis and Clark and the science behind their explorations. I had to know about sea animals, coral reefs, electricity and much more. Then I was asked to write for a local newspaper about anything related to the home. Suddenly, I became the "House Doctor." While weather topics like shoveling snow snuck in periodically, I chose to write about maintaining a medicine cabinet, ticks and fleas, energy conservation and skin cancer. The word here is "choose." Finally, I could decide what I wanted to write about. Most recently, my wife and I penned a middle school level book on extreme weather. Although most of the book related to real weather, the section on Antarctica did not. There were numerous sidebars requiring attention to penguins. I learned a lot about penguins writing that section! What amazed me most was how easy it was to research topics today (thank you Internet!). I still had to fact check, but I was able to easily learn so much about so many different things. I now feel that kids in school, with minimal direction, could be told their high school diploma awaits as soon as they learn 22% of the knowledge base of the Internet. Knowing kids, they would surf, learn, write and more...if they were given freedom of choice. So, I am glad that I have that luxury here. I've chosen to write about choosing. Next time, I'll delve into other topics that may be a bit meatier.

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