FREEDOM...To Write on the 4th of JULY

I just finished a new book about writing, GOOD PROSE: The
Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder and his editor Richard Todd.  This is worth a read for new writers and
more established ones. Some of its gems include a chapter on point of view in
creative nonfiction as well as a chapter on “Being Edited and Editing.” The
work ends with an insightful chapter on usage and grammar, which includes a
warning against medical, political and digital age clichés including my own pet
peeve—use of “mega” and “giga” and “nano” as prefixes.  
The back and forth between the writer and the editor is what
delighted this writer the most. We live inside our heads as writers and good
editors help us take what’s inside out – freely, unwieldy at times, wildly at
other times.   
Why does this matter on the 4 of July? In too
many places around the world, people are denied basic freedoms of expression –
they cannot assembly, speak or write freely.  In the United States of America, our Founding Fathers thought
it critical to write down what we as Americans are guaranteed in exchange for
our good citizenship, our allegiance.“We the People, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.” We wrote our Constitution down and have been debating
different aspects of it ever. And while we need to remain vigilant about our freedoms, especially in an age of easy surveillance, the Constitution of the United States
still stands 237 years later. Today, on the 4th
of July, we celebrate our freedom, and I write.