That’s what you’ll read here today, and almost every other time one of these entries comes your way. About 300 words—the length in feet of a football field—that take about two minutes to read—the amount of time it takes to run that far. (Mixing metaphors is still an enjoyable part of my writing.)
Why that length? I don’t want to be one of the chatterati, a class of writers or talkers who always have more words to share than we have time or interest to give them. For most of my professional life, I’ve lived with the reality that if I have more to tell you than you want to hear, we won’t communicate. I want to communicate, so I try to keep you in mind.
Perhaps like you, I spend too much time dealing with an information gush that’s sometimes aided and abetted by maddicts and angerholics–their fumings can eat up valuable space and time. Other super-sharers seem to take advantage of all the platforms at their disposal, filling time and space with their thoughts. At best that’s bothersome; at worst it’s a measure of self-absorption. I don’t want to be one of those people.
I feel that way especially at this stage in life. Even though I believe that I have lots to say and write, AND that I have the responsibility to share widely what’s truly important—even then it doesn’t feel reasonable to badger people with too many words. I don’t want to do to others what I’d prefer they wouldn’t do to me.
So I keep things shorter than a badger would write, and try to select the fewest words to make these blogs valuable for some part of your daily life.
I hope that happens. I hope you understand….
