Writing, anyone?

I have just finished reading a beautiful novel titled Trail of Broken Wings. It is the story of a successful photographer who gets hired by a hospital to help cancer patients find some joy in their illness through photography. This is just the surface of the story but a part that touches me. 

 I have been teaching writing for 25 years. I teach it differently. In essence I tell my students you need courage to be a good writer. You must be able to speak out about your life and to take responsibility for it. I give them the courage to write in the first person — as I almost always do – but to make sure they write about a universal experience. What is a universal experience? When your heart throbs with what you’re reading because the experience is familiar to you.

 My writing is always emotional and I am proud of that. I believe there is no such thing as an unemotional decision. I worked in various offices for 35 years. There was never a decision that did not contain emotions even if we told ourselves we kept emotions out of it. We used statements like objectives, strategies, only to realize later that those are useless. What is important is how you want the person to feel after he reads you.

In another book I read I came across a new field of medicine called Psychoneuroimmunology that studies the connections between our immune system and our emotions based on preliminary research that has shown that a suppression of emotions results in a suppression of the immune system. I was happy to read that because I have maintained for the longest time that this millennia will be about the brain, emotions and hormones, three fields of study that haven’t been properly explored by scientists and the medical profession.

I once taught a man who had cancer. He had had tons of chemotherapy and I could see he was no longer well. But he learned to write, really took the class to heart and wrote his life story for his graduation. I could see joy on his face when he read it. Later I heard he passed away but I was glad that somehow I had touched his life by teaching him how to write.

This year I have had two disappointments. The first when I announced my writing class early this year I got a call from a big government institution inquiring about the class. I was thrilled because I thought it would help them tremendously in their work. But unfortunately they never called back. The second was when I talked to a major hospital and I thought we were all set to offer the course to cancer patients and survivors and then they cancelled or maybe just postponed. I’m not sure. That I felt worse about not because of the benefits to me but because of the benefits to their patients. But what can you do? The medical profession in the Philippines really needs to be awakened. In other countries they are so innovative. They offer art therapy, writing therapy, crafts therapy to bring fun and joy to their patients because they know it brings healing benefits. Here we don’t even begin to look in that direction or we do but superficially, not acknowledging that the healing can and must go deeper than the short bursts they are willing to fund.

But I don’t give up easily. I will continue to give private classes at my condo in San Juan. My writing course will teach you to write better, to get over your writer’s block or your constant search for inspiration. I don’t believe in inspiration. I believe only that sometimes you write better than other times. I will teach you to look inside yourself and come out with deeper self-knowledge. You will surprise yourself with the quality of your writing. And furthermore I promise you, you will have fun.

My pre-qualifications are you must be 21 years old or older. You must be willing to throw away all the rules you learned in school. You must be willing to invest P10,000 in the classes but we can discuss payment terms.

If you are interested please call 880-2263. If no one answers call again another time. It only means people are out of the office. Or you can text 0917-8155570. Do not call the cell phone because reception is very bad here. Call the landline. Classes will begin on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the latest depending on the size of the class. It will continue every Saturday until Nov. 28.

I will be giving this writing course next year. You may decide to put your money together and give it as a Christmas gift to your mother, your wife, your sister, your girlfriend. Just call for more information.