“A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20)

When I was still living in Boston, I have heard of a story. It is about a retired senior pastor of a large Chinatown Chinese church. He has written an autobiography about himself, because he has had a stroke. He lost certain functioning of his body, but his doctor recommended him to write an autobiography. Writing about his past, what he has done, could help him exercise and rethrive his brain. An active brain could also, in turn, help him regain his bodily functions. And so he did–he started his autobiographical writing enterprise. He finished it, published it, and came back to the pulpit again as a revitalized preacher. 

If you are a Chinese living in Boston, you wouldn’t not have heard of the name of this old retired pastor, who had helped build the largest Chinese evangelical church in Boston Chinatown. 

What are the benefits of writing? Why do we need to write if we are reading books already? Why bother to write down what we have known and meditate on our own perspective in our own words? What works does it do to our brain when we write?

I am quite a TV junkie; I’d gobble down whatever science or non-fiction kinds of program shown on TV after dinner. It’s my most relaxing, family time that I feel I can have with my kid. I remember from one BBC program about aging, they reported a study of nuns. They traced back the original essay that the nuns wrote when they applied for nunship as a late teen. What they have found was astonishing. It’s about what they had written so many years ago that they found an interesting difference between those nuns who did develop Alzheimer’s Disease and those who did not.

It was the quality of their writing. The study found that when the young nuns showed complexity in their writing at a young age, those were the ones who were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease at an old age, compared to those who lacked complexity in their writing at an early age. By complexity, it means that they used a lot of examples in their writing in describing what happened, how they felt at the time, and so forth. Those writings that lack complexity would mean that the nun only used simple sentences to describe herself and her background, without giving much stories and details.

We can imagine this: those who tend to use complex language at an early age would tend to continue to use complex language throughout their life. But those who didn’t tend to use complex language would continue to use simple language as the habit lingers.

That study is another piece of evidence linking the complexity of language use and brain function preservation. 

I often found learning new vocabularies intellectually stimulating. Whoever invented the system of language were geniuses. Our ancestors; the cavemen. Language not only can help us record what we have done; language can also help us develop deep and complex thoughts. When we write, ideas are generated. Writing can bring us to a neverland, the forever possibilities beyond the stalemate of four walls that might have confined us.

Once, my husband and I were discussing on how and why there existed those fantasy ancient Chinese stories. I asked: “Why would people living in ancient China come up with those bizarre ideas of fairies, ghosts, sorcerers, and devils? As well as heros such as those that had magical power  to overpower the evil ones?” He said, maybe fantasy stories gave the ancient Chinese some sort of “acceptable” escape from the harsh reality of living under oppression and inequality.  Ancient Chinese were not supposed to critique their government and government officials. So, they wrote and told stories to release their anguish, frustration, and to yearn and hope for superheroes to rescue them from their helpless situations. 

The existence of evil power is real. Some “good” people could be evil in their hearts. Some “bad” people could be good in their hearts. This paradox can be vividly depicted in ancient fantasy stories. Many of these paradoxes characterize the famous Chinese novels by novelist KAM Yung. 

God also communicates with His people through His words written in the Bible. Stories, words … are powerful.

Have you written anything for yourself today? 

July 20, 2017