Essays are all about understanding… the world around us, the past, searching for meaning, and simply discovery in its own right. Much has been written about essays, but here I want only to make two points: 1) that the word essay derives from the French verb essayer, meaning “to try”… especially trying to understand, and most of all, 2) as expressed by Joan Didion, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.“

In other words, essay writing is about coming to know one’s own mind. To untangle confusion – to sort things out, cut through the fog, see the forest through the trees and so forth.

No apologies or excuses needed.