27. Why I Can't Write This Prompt

      I'm usually not one who lacks the words to answer any challenge put before me. However, I'm drawing a blank when it comes to this particular posting prompt. I can't bring myself to find a particular belief in myself that I feel I can express in the manner suggested by this prompt.
      Why? Why can't I come up with something to write? Don't get me wrong, I can always come up with something to write about, it's just that my nature doesn't lend itself to writing a "persuasive piece that defends a belief in an interesting–but not bombastic or aggressive–way."
      Those of you who are familiar with my writing style know that it is full of passion and emotion. Most find my expressions can be very interesting. It's simply that subtlety is not a tool in my literary shed. It's certainly not one in the larger shop that is my life. I'm passionate in my feelings and beliefs, and I have a very loud and somewhat aggressive way of relating those beliefs, from which I cannot divorce myself.
       I can tone down the fire on things I feel dispassionate about. That's how most academic writing plays out for me: take facts, then formulate non-prejudicial arguments. But beliefs are different. Beliefs involve faith, and faith requires passion. Beliefs are self-evident truths held dear lacking the certainty of irrefutable proof, which would otherwise make them fact. To remove passion from belief, I would be left with nothing more than fragmented ideas and mere notions. Simple notions cannot possibly be interesting enough to write so that others would be compelled to read them.
       I once heard a wonderful description of the true mark of maturity being when a person becomes self-aware enough to know their limitations. This particular prompt has shown me a limitation in myself. I can't write about my beliefs from the dispassionate position required to not have them come out in the sharp tones and heated words this prompting seeks to avoid. To even attempt to do so feels like a betrayal of my self, the catch-all description of who I am, and who I am is very aggressively passionate and emotive.