I so enjoy your long form writing which explores complex ideas that can’t be reduced to sound bites. I like how you often weave your personal narrative with factual information to create an essay with depth and emotional richness. Throughout the day I’m left reflecting upon this idea or that.
Thanks so much! Sorry to be slow in responding -- finally back at my desk full-time. It means a lot to know that some readers appreciate the longer form.
Look, I mean read this: Your writing is refreshing. I don’t read anymore. Period. But at 71 years zero attention span PTSD Bipolar, sir, I read every single word and you nailed each syllable pounding it home securely holding your premise intact. I am a trained seasoned fiction writer poet and artist who’s only been paid for her technical writing in the grocery retail and nonprofit event programming arena but I was very successful not in making me money but in writing to effectively communicate complex activities required by the marketplace and the communities I served. So much, no, everything of what you shared rings true from my own experience. And you have not a single unnecessary word or phrase or personal story as the entire piece rings as true as the timeless lyrics of America the Beautiful. America can be Beautiful perhaps for the first time but she’ll become such only by generational unity of vision. When we stop assuming our marketplace role as naive consumers too happy to get the rotten carrot dangling in front of our noses and become savvy powerful contributors either as daring consultants or engaging entrepreneurs providing what is needed not just what is desired only then will America become a place safe for the most at risk, infants and elders. Coming from a position as HR customer service innovator responsible for hiring and training all new management for a five-state southeast region for what was then a profitable division of the world’s largest grocery store chain, I’m able to speak from a place of knowledge and if I’d read your essay during that tumultuous pre 9/11 America when The Dream still seemed a tangible possibility for all generations occupying the marketplace and filling up universities your wise words would have influenced my decisions on training America’s work force. I’m proud I chose to inject Tough Truths into every HR training, into the Saturday Urban League Job Training sessions I led for local High School students, my company’s future department managers and merchandisers. My nonprofit events ranged from High Tea with the Symphony Conductor and her Chamber Quartet to meeting a female astronaut at summer camp. I was and am still passionate regarding sharing true knowledge, a treasure instilled in me by wise elders. Now, all you billy goats, go eat grass and be content and let this scholar be. Go on! Get!
Thank you for untangling these dilemmas so articulately and personally. Whenever I hear stories in academia like the ones you tell here or in the news, I think immediately of Cather's "The Professor's House"! Everything old is new again ...
I loved the first para, read it to my husband who was an academic before he retired, and he agreed with your kindergarten teacher. I then read a bit more, then a bit more, but I must say I started skipping because it is just too long. This is my fault, for having a limited attention span, but there it is. I wondered whether I should write this to you, honesty and all, but decided (perhaps wrongly) that you would prefer to know that someone read some of. your essay. Enjoy your break.
No, I appreciate that 500 words is much too short for almost anything, and I think I’m good for 2000-2500, but then my heart sinks and I wonder if I want to know this much about an issue, a person or whatever. But you are right to write to the length you feel appropriate. I responded because I thought it was a bit sad for you if you thought no one was reading at all. I definitely read some - at least 2K worth!
I so enjoy your long form writing which explores complex ideas that can’t be reduced to sound bites. I like how you often weave your personal narrative with factual information to create an essay with depth and emotional richness. Throughout the day I’m left reflecting upon this idea or that.
Thanks so much! Sorry to be slow in responding -- finally back at my desk full-time. It means a lot to know that some readers appreciate the longer form.
Look, I mean read this: Your writing is refreshing. I don’t read anymore. Period. But at 71 years zero attention span PTSD Bipolar, sir, I read every single word and you nailed each syllable pounding it home securely holding your premise intact. I am a trained seasoned fiction writer poet and artist who’s only been paid for her technical writing in the grocery retail and nonprofit event programming arena but I was very successful not in making me money but in writing to effectively communicate complex activities required by the marketplace and the communities I served. So much, no, everything of what you shared rings true from my own experience. And you have not a single unnecessary word or phrase or personal story as the entire piece rings as true as the timeless lyrics of America the Beautiful. America can be Beautiful perhaps for the first time but she’ll become such only by generational unity of vision. When we stop assuming our marketplace role as naive consumers too happy to get the rotten carrot dangling in front of our noses and become savvy powerful contributors either as daring consultants or engaging entrepreneurs providing what is needed not just what is desired only then will America become a place safe for the most at risk, infants and elders. Coming from a position as HR customer service innovator responsible for hiring and training all new management for a five-state southeast region for what was then a profitable division of the world’s largest grocery store chain, I’m able to speak from a place of knowledge and if I’d read your essay during that tumultuous pre 9/11 America when The Dream still seemed a tangible possibility for all generations occupying the marketplace and filling up universities your wise words would have influenced my decisions on training America’s work force. I’m proud I chose to inject Tough Truths into every HR training, into the Saturday Urban League Job Training sessions I led for local High School students, my company’s future department managers and merchandisers. My nonprofit events ranged from High Tea with the Symphony Conductor and her Chamber Quartet to meeting a female astronaut at summer camp. I was and am still passionate regarding sharing true knowledge, a treasure instilled in me by wise elders. Now, all you billy goats, go eat grass and be content and let this scholar be. Go on! Get!
Thanks for reading.
Thank you for untangling these dilemmas so articulately and personally. Whenever I hear stories in academia like the ones you tell here or in the news, I think immediately of Cather's "The Professor's House"! Everything old is new again ...
Indeed. The commercialism themes are even clearer in “One of Ours” and “Lucy Gayheart.”
I loved the first para, read it to my husband who was an academic before he retired, and he agreed with your kindergarten teacher. I then read a bit more, then a bit more, but I must say I started skipping because it is just too long. This is my fault, for having a limited attention span, but there it is. I wondered whether I should write this to you, honesty and all, but decided (perhaps wrongly) that you would prefer to know that someone read some of. your essay. Enjoy your break.
Thanks for reading. You may be right, though an essay is an attempt at making sense of things, which can't always be done in 500 words.
No, I appreciate that 500 words is much too short for almost anything, and I think I’m good for 2000-2500, but then my heart sinks and I wonder if I want to know this much about an issue, a person or whatever. But you are right to write to the length you feel appropriate. I responded because I thought it was a bit sad for you if you thought no one was reading at all. I definitely read some - at least 2K worth!