My Blog as Seen in the Light of Nine Basic Principles

According to Basic Principles of Speech 4th Edition (Sarett/Sarett/Foster) there are nine effective speech principles.  They are:

• Effective Speech Reveals an Able Person.
• Effective Speech Communicates the Meanings Intended by the Speaker.
• The Goal of Effective Speech is Interaction.
• Effective Speech Presents Significant Ideas.
• Effective Speech Shows Clear and Cogent Organization of Ideas.
• Effective Speech Develops Ideas Through Critical and Creative Choice of Language.
• Effective Speech is Adapted to the Listener and to the Speech Situation.
• Effective Speech Makes Skillful Use of Voice and Gesture.
• Effective Speech is Marked by a Distinctive Style.

I have written blogs almost daily since May of 2010.  Most of these blogs can be seen as brief essays.  I would like to substitute the word “Essays” for “Speech” in the above principles and discuss my blog in relation to these principles. 

I will begin with the first: Effective Essays Reveal an Able Person.

Allowing for the inevitable–a distressing number of readers who find my essays ineffective and thus prima facie evidence of an unable person–I will even so mount a dogged defense.

In regards to the first principle,  let’s define “Able”.  Relevant definitions include: Adjective:

1. (usually followed by 'to') having the necessary means, skill, know-how or authority to do something
2. Having the skills and qualifications to do things well
3. Having inherent physical or mental ability or capacity  [WordWeb Pro]

I unabashedly affirm my essays reveal necessary means, skill, know-how or authority to write effectively. They reveal necessary skills and qualifications including mental and physical ability and capacity.  Beyond this definition, I think most agree that an “able person” also suggests someone who is steady, persistent, and reliable.  Since to date I have 1,987 posts, I will be the first to admit that scattered among occasional excellence is occasional dross.  But my general rule is to let unevenness stand without endless revision–though I may spend as much as an hour revising a single sentence at the time of writing.

In the nine days ahead, I look forward to considering my blog in relation to these principles. 

Print Page

Choosing Life’s Superior Course

With what area of your life is trust in God wavering?... (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 254). 

Sooner or later in the knocks and bruises that life inevitably brings, we come to a fork in the road. Then we are confronted with a critical choice. Then we must decide which way to travel.  One direction leads to bitterness, self-loathing, and despair; the other to self-confidence, vigor, and competence.  It all hinges on how we come to see ourselves.  Will we see ourselves as hapless victims–would-be winners if not for an endless train of “Them’s” that constantly afflict us; or will we see ourselves as increasingly capable survivors?  The first is the way of resignation, defeat, and resentment; the second is the way of hope, mounting strength and achievement.  No one need see themselves as a vapid loser, but it is essential first to muster the courage to survive and prevail–to travel down life’s superior course boosted by a determinative decisional moment to become one intrepid survivor:

Even the wisest man grows tense   
With some sort of violence   
Before he can accomplish fate   
Know his work or choose his mate. 
(W.B. Yeats: “Under Ben Bulben”)

Print Page

To Be Continued

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV).

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:  
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star....
(William Wordsworth “”Intimations of Immortality”)

I am at that age when younger people ask me “Why do you care about this issue, it will not be decided or resolved until long after you are dead?”  I answer very simply “Because a concern for this issue has been placed upon my heart.” I cannot say for certain precisely the process by which my consciousness takes some ownership of this issue.  I only know that it does so and that I am absolutely certain that such concern is valid and right, however seemingly improper. (As a believer, I say that God has placed this concern upon my heart.)  It is a signal trait of mankind–this desire to connect and contribute to a future in which one will not personally participate.  It is one of the more beautiful traits of mankind and testifies to persistent intimations of eternity.                  

Print Page

Stand and Deliver

How do you explain why God sometimes delivers you out of hardships, but at other times he allows you to go through them? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1527).

Sometimes God expects us first to get our act together–in other words, peace and tranquility are partly our responsibility, a responsibility requiring work...not the least of which is work that engages thought and imagination.

It is in this spirit I address the impasse that currently afflicts American politics.  It is an impasse that begs for an alternative to the present options given of a welfare state vs private capitalism.  Both of these directions, while in part born of good intentions, have brought us to this tortuous pass.  We must not expect God to zap us with new ideas, but he has given us the opportunity to work together and to envision something better.

At the outset it must be recognized that the playing field today is international and that current governmental regulatory structures do no adequately reflect that. Nevertheless we must ask, what can nation states do to resolve social and political conflict?

A central matter to be addressed is the impact of capitalism on public life.  Capitalism posits a fictional distribution of private property and tends to ignore community-wide public contributions and costs in the creation of wealth.  Nevertheless, capitalism beyond argument is an essential parent of creativity.  But we must recognize that creativity has benefits and costs that far outstrip current allocations of wealth.  Its costs are far greater than any private Research and Development budget and its benefits far surpass private profit margins.  We must merely reflect on computer automation to recognize this.  That the benefits we all enjoy cannot be neatly contained is obvious.  Likewise the cost of creativity includes severe contortions to any given status quo.  There are numerous distortions and displacements whose cost is best met by being spread over many industries (as indeed are the benefits).  Let us take for example the “buggy whip” industry that met the creative efforts of Henry Ford and his workers that introduced revolutionary innovations into economic life.  Certainly we would not expect only the Ford motor company to help retrain and relocate buggy whip workers. Such specificity would discourage creativity and unfairly allocate cost without regard for the huge social benefit of automobiles.

Therefore we see that neatly and assiduously allocating costs and benefits is impossible and fictional.  Of necessity we need broader and more realistic visions of the nature of creativity, cost accounting, and governmental taxing and funding.  It is our place to meet this reality responsibly while bravely transcending prejudices that hamstring and balkanize us.  Then, we must prayerfully turn to God to bless our best efforts.

Print Page

Fear Not

Do you think it is possible to know God’s will every step of the way? Why or why not? What are some of the ways we can attune ourselves to God’s will for us? Which of these will you be incorporating into your life now? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 251).

Must we always be presumptive in identifying God’s will for us?  Is the human mind so susceptible to rationalization that our proclamation of God’s will shall of necessity always be suspect?  While cognizant of these questions, our perception can yet be such that we have firm conviction as to what we should do based upon our best lights. In the mature mind, risk and the fear of it bears upon many grand decisions.  It is an interesting phenomenon that sometimes we delay and sometimes we do not.  Fear can not only cause delay, it can also press for urgent action.  Typically when fear is removed as a barrier to great decisions, I attribute this remarkable lack of fear to the Holy Spirit–when I no longer fear not taking an action or conversely take significant actions without fear. I hasten to add that not all outcomes from these decisions are ideal from a human perspective–nor must they be.

Print Page

Actualizing the Fruits of Pragmatism

For what reasons might someone be suspicious of you and withhold their trust? How do you win over those who are suspicious of you? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 595-6).

Where I live (in America) most are ultimately a pragmatic lot.  The clincher to any speculation is always the question–but will it work? My principal message is essentially and consistently the necessity of the disciplines of love (one can say “effective nurturing”) beginning with the individual and extending to all societal institutions.  It is evident to me that society has refused to consistently and effectively address this necessity even in the family unit, much less regarding governmental and creative sector responsibilities.  It is in my emphasis on this need that I get into the most trouble receiving trust–for pragmatism and love are often seen as opposites–oil and water just don’t mix (the fancied practical “hard” and the fancied impractical “soft”) and to believe otherwise is not practical and sinfully not “hard” or “trustworthy.”  Since I consider this view tragically mistaken and believe that effective nurturing is the greatest need today, there appears that nothing but integrity can save me from distrust.  Ironically, in my view, the disciplines of love and effective nurturing are the ultimate bases for actualizing the fruits of pragmatism.

Print Page

Lacking Direction

As I kid I watched my father prepare for extended car trips.  The first step was for him to obtain a road map at the local filling station.  The map (provided by the oil company) was free.  Dad would carefully map out a route taking special note of the location of road transfers along the way to our destination.  Typically, each state had its own map.

Now things are different.  First no free road maps.  In fact, no maps at all as we have come to totally rely upon the GPS for extended directions.  Friday morning at the close of our vacation in the mountains, Connie and I ate breakfast at the Huddle House with Bob and Linda.  Following breakfast Connie and I said goodbye and headed for home, depending upon our GPS to lead the way to Saint Petersburg, Fl.  As we wanted to avoid Atlanta, our route of necessity would be circuitous with many roundabout road transfers.  While still in Cleveland, the map on our GPS suddenly started spinning and the device started barking nonsensical directions. The malfunction continued after I rebooted the GPS and removed and reinserted the memory chip.  Without the GPS, we were more than directionally challenged–we were completely lost.  I stopped at an auto parts store in the immediate vicinity.  The store did not carry GPS’s, but the associate pointed out that it was just a few blocks to Walmart. At Walmart I purchased a GPS called Tom Tom. We then continued smoothly to Florida.  The incident is remindful that life, with its many twists and turns, is critically problematic if lacking reliable direction.

Print Page