About writing

I have been a writer most of my life, whether writing reports as a Town Planner, writing my weekly sermon, or editing The Australian Baptist magazine in the late 1980s.

When I became a "non-stipendiary pastor" in 2000, I was no longer meeting people around my town day by day, attending community meetings, and looking for different ways of communicating Christian faith. So I thought I should look for ways to communicate during the times which were available to me -- early mornings and late nights.

I write letters to the Editor, mainly of the Sydney Morning Herald. It's a place I regularly go and "meet" people like myself. I could try The Telegraph, or The Tribune, or any one of hundreds of newspapers and magazines, but I have mainly stuck in the world I know best. Not very "missionary" of me, but not everyone crosses all boundaries equally well.

I occasionally contribute remarks to on-line blog discussions. I also write this blog and try to post things on line from time to time (www.atsilverstreet.com)

I suppose that getting approval from readers has been one of the things which kept me going.

My first published letter in the SMH was a mock indignant one about Lorena Bobbitt and her creative use of a knife. Everyone was talking about the Bobbitts, and the verb, "to bobbitt", threatened to enter the language.

I argued that we were dismissing the pioneering work of Valmaila Loisi several years earlier, and suggested that it was either an American attempt to take over the culture, or a racist dismissal of the work of an islander.

The Letters editor at the time wrote to me that he had found it quite amusing.

So, like politicians who are encouraged by people voting for them, I got onto my computer from then on.

I am not a permanently serious writer of potted sermons. Life is about all kinds of interesting things. I have written about cults, I have written about public transport, I have written about the ethics of Section 94 contributions under the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (my original professional qualification is in Town Planning) and even about milking cats.

Over this time, I have been learning. Sometime I get things kind-of right, other times I try something and mess it up. I have tried blogging a number of times and dropped out, but I have returned. A former workmate got me onto Facebook, Steve Hinch (@stevehinch) suggested Twitter to me... there are so many options today.

We all live with restrictions and limitations, but we live in a world where there are so many options available, there are few reasons why we should sit back and say, "I can do nothing to change my world."

There is so much you can do! -- it's a matter of putting your will to it and finding the options.