So for a guy like me--a guy who actually writes essays, who believes in them, and who even publishes whole books of his essays--it can be disheartening. Maybe being an essay writer is my punishment for some transgression in a previous lifetime: “You have been banished to a life of writing essays; you will work slavishly, yet your work will never be read by a single soul. Deal with it!”

So I deal with it the only way I know how--by writing yet another essay. I’m like a cat who gets thrown to the floor every time I jump on the counter. I keep doing it, no matter how badly I bruise my pecking paws.

The weird reality is that our lives are already awash in essays. We just don’t call them essays. We call them things like tweets, newspaper articles, emails, Facebook posts, I-messages, dumb assignments (your blog posts), boring NPR dronings, right and left wing rants, teenage disses and predictably pointless adult pontifications...

Every time we put thoughts into words we are literally “creating” an essay. We just don’t treat them as such. We treat words like they live and die in the moment--like some Mayfly hatch on the Assabet River or a half-empty bag of Cheeseits. They live, die, float, sink and are carried away into the ocean of common ignorance. To change this tide, change yourself. Treat essays like they should be treated--as generous thoughts explored on a page, ruminations cobbled together and gifted to humanity--all at the cost of a simple click.

Above all, read essays. Read essays that actually make you think, ponder and wonder. Search for essays that speak to some corner of your life and might bring clarity to your own thoughts and help yu make sense of your own experiences.. You might have noticed  (and you might not have noticed) but I have been asking you to read an essay before most every class period--my essays--and asking you for some response to each essay. Your responses run the gamut from immediate and raw visceral responses to thoughtful and nuanced reflections on the meaning and message of the words tumbling from the wheelbbarrow of my head. 

Either way, you are responding to literature in a meaningful way. You are living the life of a writer. You are no different than a football player studying a playbook, a cook learning a new recipe, a sailor tying a knot, or an engineer testing an engine. We learn by learning to know, by practicing what we know works, and by doing what we know we are.

Writers read and writers write. A coin is worthless on one side only. Study and learn what makes good reading, and you will make good writing. It is that simple.

So, be a writer! Make what you write and say and preach mean something. Then maybe what you say or write will be meaningful. And memorable. And remembered.

But only if you do it...