The Freedom to Write

During my recent stroll downtown Indianapolis, one particular moment left me breathless.

It was when I came upon this:

Yes, only a writer would zero in on this statue and let time stand still. But it felt so symbolic.

Here’s another view:

I mean, there I was in Indy at an event for Catholic communicators throughout the United States. How could I not see the significance of a woman gracefully gripping a pen and how that particular movement, of all the movements in her day, had been fixed in time?

On closer examination, I learned that “she” stood for Enlightenment.

How beautiful. How appropriate. Our communication at its clearest should always lead to enlightenment. When we open our souls to the words that God wishes to pour into our hearts and minds which eventually, if we do our jobs well, flow out of our pens, it is a beautiful thing.

In Romans 10, we read, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” I think of the dusty sandals of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta I witnessed as relics in our local cathedral a few years back.

And to that lovely image, I would add, “How beautiful are the hands who bring good news.”

Blessed hands. Hands connected to the heart. Hands connected to the soul.

And I’m thinking, too, of the friends I’ve interviewed who have come to America from other lands — faraway places like Ethiopia and Burundi — and what they’ve taught me about the blessing of being able to put pen to paper and write out a beautiful thought. And not only that, but to have someone read it and be transformed by it.

These friends have renewed my appreciation for one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given by God and my country — the freedom to write. But not just that, to have been blessed by a mind formed by God to write worthily, to write stories that will make a difference even though I might never know the receiver of the blessing.

God often reaches us through words. And He holds high expectations for those of us chosen to transport thoughts of life to others through the written word.

My Catholic writer friends and me in Indianapolis, Summer 2012

Thank you, God, for the freedom to write.

As we contemplate anew our freedoms and how dear they are, May God bless your 4th of July!