The Readist

Wendell Berry calls most of us illiterate. We are illiterate by his measure because, although we can speak and use our language, we cannot speak and use our language well. We do not interpret words or thoughts well. We have difficulty recognizing the different ways words are used. We are lost when it takes many words to make a point, and we are confused when someone else uses words fast and well. And we are, worst of all, at the mercy of the people making their own words the main message, because their words are generally seeking one thing; money for those who set the message. If we don’t know how to analyze words, arguments, critiques, or sales pitches, we will be removed from our money and dignity as easily are the illiterate.

Progress

The Future: something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. –C.S. Lewis, 1941

All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.–Samuel Butler, 1890

Read

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” —William Faulkner

Can we dispense with telling young writers that the key to writing well is more writing? As if bad writing, and writing badly, will suddenly give way to good writing. The key to good writing (and good talking, and good persuading) is good reading.

Get a Jobs

Since dying, Steve Jobs has been talked up and replayed. Nothing has been more popular than his 2005 commencement address to Stanford, in which he implored graduates, more or less, to follow their dreams. There have been quite a few responses to this, most of them gushing and appreciative, but a few critical. This may be the most succinct:

As an undergrad I was an art major. Frankly, few of my fellow art majors were talented enough to make a living at it, even after four (or more!) years of training. Sure they loved art, but in the immortal words of Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?” “Find what you love and never settle for less” is an excellent recipe for frustration and poverty. “Reconcile yourself to the limits of your talent and temperament and find the most satisfactory compromise between what you love to do and what you need to do feed your children” is rather less stirring, but it’s much better advice. –Will Wilkinson

If you have a rare combination of talent and resources, you may be able to heed–and do–what Jobs says. You are more likely in the group with the other 98% of the population that more realistically resonates with Conan O’Brien’s 2011 commencement to Dartmouth.

Jobs

The legacy on Steve Jobs is, I hope, yet undetermined. He will no doubt be remembered as one of our greatest innovators. But to be remembered as one of our greatest leaders, Apple will have to continue innovating without him. Good leaders train others up to be leaders. Good leaders beget other leaders to take their place. Good leaders care more about their people and mission than they care about their legacy. Good leaders cast off insecurity and selfishness in favor of developing the people and ideas around them. Good leaders celebrate good work and success, no matter who generates them. That should be the measure of a leader, and that should be (but often is not), the measure of a legacy.

Who are you?

Are we still the good guys?

Yes we’re still the good guys. Course we are.

And we always will be? No matter what happens?

Always will be.

–Cormac McCarthy, The Road

 

Bad Day

Woke up this morning wondering why Nordic lit is so dark (is it the snow?). Went to prayer group and prayed with people that go to my former church, and resonated with their pain. Discussed what a good church is and how hard one is to find or build. Went to a staff infection (1.75 hours is too long). Discovered vault.ncaa.com. Suck. 2011 is now shot…continued an email debate with an atheist teen who wouldn’t know a logical fallacy if it were on MTV, then ate some leftover sushi (what could be the downside?). Stumbled on an old clip of Kathie Lee and Hoda without makeup on…was like being stuck in the creepiest corners of Chat Roulette…pondered Kurt Cobain’s suicide on it’s 17th anniversary. Why not Courtney Love, too? WHY COULD IT NOT HAVE BEEN COURTNEY LOVE?

Shower

Yesterday; went to church, did yard work, wrote, went to church again, watched 500 Days of Summer, showered and realized that I should blog everything, because it seemed to work for a crappy cook who followed a liberal cookbook (she even got a movie deal). Or like every other woman who gets pregnant these days. Or gays (although I refuse to vlog). I got out, toweled off, slept, woke up this morning, made some joe, looked out the window at some flirty squirrels, worked up a deuce, read some stuff about Revelation, got jiggy with it, dropped the deuce, cleaned up the house…my mom is visiting tonight with a Pentecostal aunt. Courtesy flushed (love you, mom), blogged.

Venn Kick

I have been on a Venn kick. Because they’re where hilarity meets profundity.

Venn lives where few of us do.

Shopping is politics.

Anyone else surprised that Hoda hasn't yet taken a bunch of sleeping pills?

One Up Me Venn

This is probably why they're still unpublished.