It wouldn’t be too big a stretch to say I’ve been a writer all my life. I took my first creative writing class in second grade. I began a journal when I was 11 years old and have been writing ever since, both personally and professionally.

Why do I journal and blog? Mostly I’m driven by the relentless urge to record, dissect, understand, and come to terms with my life and my world. Other times my motivation is to create art, entertain, or to start a conversation. I would never tell anyone I am writing to change the world.

Yet this is exactly what Mary Pipher has titled her latest book: “Writing to Change the World.” In it she explores the power of words to connect human beings and affect change. In a world that often seems overrun with intractable environmental, political, and social problems, she challenges her readers to be hopeful and become an instrument of positive change. Blogging can do just that, whether you’re sharing stories from your life or commenting on larger issues. Here’s why:

“Good writing facilitates the making of connections in a way that inspires openheartedness, thinking, talking, and action. All totalitarian governments achieve their ends by frightening and isolating people, and by preventing honest public discussion of important matters. The way to promote social and economic justice is by doing just the opposite: by telling the truth, and by encouraging civil, public discussion.

“Good writing enlarges readers’ knowledge of the world, or empowers readers to act for the common good, or even inspires other good writing. We all understand the world from our own point of view, our own frames of reference, that allow us to make sense of what our senses take in. Writers help readers construct larger, more expansive frames of reference so that more of the world can be more accurately perceived.

“Good writing connects people to one another, to other living creatures, to stories and ideas, and to action. It allows readers to see the world from a new perspective. Writers are always asking people, ‘What is your experience?’ They listen, they observe, then they share what they have learned with others. Writing to connect is empathy training. And, as Gloria Steinem once said, ‘Empathy is the most revolutionary of emotions.’ ”

(From the introduction of Mary Pipher’s book, Writing to Change the World, 2006)