Thursday, April 2, 2009

Reading...

OK - I might be breaking some sort of "rule" by double dipping (as Steve says) but I'm steamed this afternoon that people (all of us!) just don't read. I realized that most of my angst around AA service and, for that matter, my life with my family, my friends, business associates - everyone - is that they either don't read what I write (pick a venue - email, letters, proposals, articles, etc.) - or, they presume ill intent when I don't write it skillfully enough that they don't get the impression I intend as they skip over it.

In my limited time in the Blogosphere, it seems probably a full 5+% of the effort writing on articles (present company excluded, of course ;-) ) is about misunderstanding of what the blog means or what is "really" said.

...and, I think, I do the same thing (skim over tons of reading paying little actual attention or focus)...

It just dawned on me today that we have a whole culture with thousands of would-be authors who are just generating words that very few people actually wrestle to ground.

Ironically, I was asked to look at coding an application for twitter today and that just boggles my mind. I'm one of 150,000 people who is following some yahoo who sends short messages to his/her network 5-10 times a day. ...times 15 million... Wow...

I have this sneaking suspicion that they aren't reading either...

Anyway, I suppose the principles are: patience, humility, flexibility, acceptance, ... ?

I guess the real point is that I have to stop expecting people to read and understand what I write if I'm going to have any peace and serenity in my life. If I need to communicate something of importance, I just need to make sure it's communicated in a way (other than writing) that makes sense for actually communicating...

...and I just started a blog...

Might be huge...
?
Ed

2 comments:

Scott W said...

I try to pay attention, but I read a lot of blogs first thing in the morning so I may be a little foggy sometimes. Sometimes it makes me a bit silly.

Syd said...

I see this in meetings too. Someone is sharing and others are day dreaming or thinking about what they will say. Yesterday the lady next to me was texting during a share. So there are going to be those who skim and those who delve deep. Sometimes I wonder whether the stuff that I write is too heavy. But then I'll get some great comments and emails even. It's all good regardless.