I'm not sure exactly why I struggle so much lately, but--along with today's Jungian theme (this post really is meta)--I blame my internal editor, an ever-fattening curmudgeon who blocks the path between my intuitive ideas and the conscious crafting of words. My rational, quasi-perfectionistic mind judges and discards my prose before I get the chance to chew on it.
Therefore, I'm going to conduct an experiment. For the next seven days, I will write one post per day. Probably the posts will be shorter, less polished, and related to shallower topics, but I'll have an opportunity to work on getting ideas on paper quickly. Hopefully it will kick off a trend in more frequent posting, because let's be honest: people want to hear what is inside my brain.
So, I have a request for my meager readership. I believe that I have enough topics to fill seven consecutive days of lightweight blogging, but I'd rather not come up short and have to write a completely superficial post just to make a self-imposed deadline. Thus, I invite you to submit a topic or two about which you would like to see me spout off a few paragraphs. I won't put hard guidelines on the topics, but make them something worth thinking and arguing about. Political topics are acceptable only if there is a meaningful non-partisan component; I'm not interested in becoming anyone's ideologue. Philosophical and/or theological topics earn bonus points.
Thanks in advance for your participation.
4 comments:
I totally know what you mean. I feel like my blog has gotten more "shallow" because it takes time that I don't have to produce something deeper. Every now and then I will take the time, so I feel my blog is this eclectic mix of things. Oh well.
What should you write about? Hmmm...Not sure. Does it have to be significant? I think you should talk about your beard. It looks good on you, very scholarly. Or all your travelling. Or your beautiful wife. I'm interested in those things. I know they are not political or anything but, I'm interested.
What does "superficial" mean to you? For me it's a laundry-list of "what did I do today." Cut it just one level deeper--how what you did today made you feel, or something you learned from it (no matter how short such a thought may be)--and you have something worth posting, IMHO.
Here's one for you. In one of my classes we just read a chapter about the high HIV/AIDS prevalence in the illegeal drug user (IDU) community. The chapter discusses what public health should/could do to reduce this health disparity.
One example is a nationwide needle exchange program to ensure the IDU community has accses to clean needles and doesn't spread HIV among themselves, their sexual partners, or their children. States and cities have these programs but congress has repeatedly blocked efforts to establish a federal program.
I found it alarming that the ethical argument against such a blatant acceptance/sponsership of illegal, irrational, and risky behavior was nonexistant. The author didn't even consider that resorces might be better used elsewhere in a different community or on a different poor health or disease outcome. Feel free to argue that it is a good program and use of resources, I'm just alarmed though not terribly surprized that it wasn't even considered.
Discuss government (tax payer) sponsered efforts to ensure the public's health and ensure enviornments where health is obtainable exist. How should tax payer dollars be allocated? To the disease that affects the most US citizens? To the disease that has the direst (morbidity or mortality your choice) individual or community result? To the people bearing most of the tax burden? Is a needle exchange program ethical? Should we even enter into an ethical discussion about it?
The questions are endless and I invite you to think about all of these quandries. I've got more questions dealing with public health and focus and resource allocation and resourses spent if you want them.
how about the rise, progress, and future of EE, in a nutshell, for those of us on the outside?
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