Posted by cav on March 13, 2005 at 06:16:50:
In Reply to: Re: Flannery O'Connor, Dorothy Day, Edith Stein and more.... posted by Dave on March 12, 2005 at 11:31:22:
Regarding the idea that speaking or writing allows us to realize our own opinions, I have often wondered how much of that cohesion is actually based in our own thought...I'm moving into a more metaphysical area here, but mediums and spiritualists in many traditions practice a form of writing or speaking that allows them to channel. If you've ever practiced true stream of consciousness free writing, especially regarding questions in our own mind, it is strange how much it can take on a tone completely different than our own voice. And as Christians who believe in the influence of the Holy Spirit, I wonder how much of what we call our own thought isn't really. I mean the Apostles were instructed to not worry about what they would say when brought before authorities because the Holy Spirit would reveal to them in that very moment what they should say. I'm really just musing here, but I can't help thinking that all of it is related in some way that we don't understand.
As an aside to that, I am often frustrated that these sorts of questions are not legitimately researched. I think empiricism so crushed any other form of investigation of natural phenomena that for centuries these parts of our reality were ignored. Now psychology and natural scientists are starting to turn attention to these matters that are observable but not directly documentable. I'd just be interested to know what similar characteristics were going on among a large segment of people in different cultures and languages, and maybe even monitor brain activity during such an activity.
: : : "About the only way we know whether we believe or not is by what we do..."
: : (I only have time to comment on this right now)
: : This is a great insight. Going along with it, I have found (as have others I know) that sometimes the same is true for what we SAY. Sometimes I feel like I am completely unsure of what I really believe about some issue, and no amount of thinking will reveal it. Then someone asks me about it, and I listen to what flows naturally out of me in words. I am often surprised to realize that I really do belive what I just said, though I could not find that truth by thinking alone. I don't know if this is true for many, but I do know a few who have shared similar sentiments, like Terry. For me, I think God has made me in such a way that all truth requires some kind of expression to be realized and to be reaffirmed on an ongoing basis.
: Actually, that insight is at the heart of what we in the English dept call "writing center theory" (so called because we model our writing center's methodology on the insight itself). Writers oftentimes don't really know what they believe about a given issue until they write about it. It's as though the writing process itself (in your case the speaking process) forces us to organize all of the "loose" impressions we may harbor into coherent thought.
: Re: Flannery O'Connor, she is absolutely one of my faves. I have all of her stuff, as well as the Elie book. In fact, I recently parodied Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" as a short story, set in the rural South. Flannery was very much on my mind as I did so.
: Dave