There is still time to submit your essay and participate
“Love or fear: which motivates us more?” is the 2014 question posed by the Great American Think-Off and everyone still has time to submit her or his essay (no more than 750 words) until April 15.
This annual essay and debate contest offers four $500 prizes to anyone who enters and travels, all expenses paid by the Great American Think-Off, to New York Mills in rural Minnesota to debate the issue on June 14. The debate is sponsored each year by the Cultural Center in New York Mills and this year is the 22nd annual contest.
Essays can be mailed (no entry fee) to Great American Think-Off, P.O. Box 246, New York Mills, Minnesota 56567 or submitted on line through the Think-Off website, www.think-off.org. Essays can also be submitted by email to info@think-off.org.
John Lennon advocated for love when he wrote that “there are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. ” And poet William Stafford had another take on the subject when he wrote “What you fear will not go away; it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That’s the world, and we all live there.”
We invite everyone to craft an essay grounded in personal experience choosing to argue either love or fear and submit it to the Think-Off by April 15.
