I wanted to get enough of a pattern of regular writing going that I had sufficient material to judge my progress. It’s been about a year, albeit only 26 posts. It seems to me looking back that I have a few ideas, oddball ways of looking at things, but I’m a poor writer. I take the idea, allude to it briefly, and race to the conclusion with little or no explanation. Even someone predisposed to agree with the conclusion would be wondering what I meant.
Somewhere I saw a cartoon of a college chalkboard covered with equations, each with an arrow to the next logical step, but in the middle one was missing; it said “[here a miracle occurs]”. There’s my approach to communication sometimes.
I want to point out an example of a writer I think I can learn from: David Langness, editor of, and contributor to, Bahá’í Teachings. There are some features of the site I wouldn’t do myself, but I recognize they’re necessary in today’s competition for attention — the links as callouts in the text, and the splitting of longer articles into parts, serving to shorten the time needed to read today’s part, and also increasing the frequency of updates, crucial to get repeat readers. And nice graphics and design, which I do appreciate, even if I’m avoiding them myself for now.
If you read more than a few of the posts, I think overall they make a good introduction and have a great variety of approaches and topics. Here’s an example of a recent article he wrote–the topic is racism, White fear of being overrun by “other kinds” of humans. [edit Jan. 13, 2022: the topic started out as racism but has morphed into world government and eliminating war, very well done.] If I were tackling this topic, I’d probably have about 2 short paragraphs to the effect of “who cares about skin color & some imaginary competition with immigrants? We’re immigrants ourselves (maybe 300 years ago instead of 3, but what does it matter?)”
As you read those sentences, I think you have to admit they convince pretty much no one.
Instead check out his approach:
CITIZENS OF A NATION OR WORLD CITIZENS?
- The oneness of humanity versus the “great replacement”
- The xenophobic roots of the “great replacement” theory
- What Should Rich Nations Do about Refugees and Migrants?
- What Do Religions Have to Say about Refugees and Migration?
- Baha’is and Immigration: How to Build a World Without Borders
- Uniting the Nations in One Federal System
Not addressed here is the larger question of “Why write? What are the goals?” That’s for another post.
Beyond that, too soon to tell how it develops but I’m very hopeful. I have the impression that it’s so new, they hurried to organize what is here in time for their