Rev. Jack
Rev. Jack was well loved by his entire congregation. I met him one bright and sunny September morning as he walked from the vicarage to his church for the morning service. He stopped to chat for a few moments and I welcomed him home from his month long summer holiday. He looked refreshed and relaxed and his face bore the glow of sunshine from days outdoors on his well deserved break.
As we chatted, a parishioner on her way to church stopped with words of welcome. “Morning Reverend! She said, adding “I am glad to see you back. That fellow we had while you were away waffled on forever; the dinner was burned every week. At least now we will have short sermons”. With that she went on her way into the churchyard.
“Not a very diplomatic lady”. I said
Smiling, Rev Jack looked at me and said “If I cannot say what I want, in 10 minutes; I am wasting my time, the congregation loses concentration and begins to shuffle about after that!”
I have often thought of those words when listening to speakers, be they clergymen, businessmen or politicians. Rev Jack is a very wise old man indeed!
While reading an epistle of a blog post the other day, I found myself struggling to keep up. I had the impression that the author was trying to use every word in the dictionary in his post. At least four times I had to go back and start over to make some sense of the piece on the screen. It made me think of Rev Jack’s words.
If that same author was restricted to a Post-it note, how would he deliver his message?
Are we writing for ourselves, or do we really have a message we want to share…..
Daniel said,
September 12, 2009 at 9:32 am
Yes I think Rev Jack was right, 10 minutes is enough. I had to laugh as I remembered someone who used to deliver sermons of less than 10 minutes but who had a unique gift of warping the space time continuum to make it seem like hours were passing by. I don’t know about blog posts though, your previous post was very long and yet it was utterly absorbing and look how many comments there were!
Ursula said,
September 12, 2009 at 10:23 am
Grannymar, a fine can of worDs you have opened with your question.
The good Rev might consider a short sermon on compassion for those who are a little long winded to convey what might be a valuable point. After all, that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, an attention span of 10 minutes strikes me as rather short, and may the limits of our patience with fellow humans be stretched.
Just like few know how to forge a piece of metal into a horseshoe not everyone is born a master wordsmith or orator but that doesn’t mean that those less well endowed should shut up.
Does the above fit on a (large) post-it note? I doubt it: My hand writing is quite expansive.
As to your question whether we write for ourselves: Of course we do otherwise we wouldn’t bother. But most of us want to be heard/read too - the human default mode being that of wishing to communicate and hoping to get an echo (say, in the form of a comment on one’s blog).
You have raised a great subject, Grannymar, with many underlying questions to be pondered.
U
Grannymar said,
September 12, 2009 at 11:05 am
Daniel - yesterday’s post was the longest I’ve ever written, with a word count of 1833. I suppose I could have reduced it by not reproducing the words of the Anthems, but many of my readers were from other lands and perhaps would not know them.
I wish you every blessing as you move to a new Parish, and may the words in your heart move through your lips to bring comfort and enlightenment to all.
Ursula - A church congregation is usually very mixed with people of many ages and abilities. I for one can be distracted by the movement of a head or a colourful garment several seats in front of me. Sunlight suddenly streaming through a window, may be the hand of God but it takes the mind off the words delivered from a pulpit. Children talking or fidgeting in a pew, and who can blame them, when they are confined or indeed squashed into a small space and expected to remain quiet for the duration, are another distraction.
One of the best sermons I ever heard, delivered without notes and using a ‘yo-yo’ for a prop, was from the late Ven. Jim Rooney, who was Archdeacon of Dalriada at the time.
Maynard said,
September 12, 2009 at 11:37 am
Grannymar, I’m with you on Rev. Jack. I have ADD, it’s never been diagnosed. That is why I run about 18 miles a week to control it. After experiencing a long winded minister, I tell my wife all the time that if a person can not get his or her point across in 15 minutes then it’s not worth hearing. That’s how I feel with long posts. If the post is to long I will just read the comments to get the idea of the post, and then make some reticulous comment which does not mean a thing to what the writer is trying to say. Sorry, this comment is to long– I’m “bored”! Why haven’t you posted your next post already? I like the way you post something new every day ,YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!!
gaelikaa said,
September 12, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Well, brevity is the soul of wit. Or something.
Mike Goad said,
September 12, 2009 at 1:58 pm
In 1992, I attended a conference session on accelerated learning where the main point that i remember is that the instructor should change up the delivery method about every 7 minutes.
I generally like blog posts of relatively short length, though, if I’m really interested in the subject and the author is posting material that is new to me, I can really get into reading some very long posts.
Brighid said,
September 12, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Having the inability to control the length of a post requires me to make them as long as they need to be for me to get my feelings out and not run on and on without losing my main thought…
Nick said,
September 12, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I agree, ten minutes is more than enough to make a few essential points. I’ve spent too much time listening to speakers waffling on pointlessly. And there are some very verbose bloggers out there, they do try my patience sometimes!
Rumuuser said,
September 12, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Now we know why twitter is so popular. Perhaps we should all change over to twitter!
Confessions Maynard. Nice to know about your ADD. I shall remember that in my communications to you.
Grannymar said,
September 12, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Maynard - Yesterdays post was unusually long for me. I was trying to cover all sides. I prefer shorter posts. ADD is no sin, you deal with it very well. I would be the first to admit that I am a very slow reader, and there are days when the words jump about the page. You are a hard taskmaster asking me to write more than one post a day. Some people think that quality is better than quantity.
Gaelikaa - I never heard that one before.
Mike Goad - Welcome on board. Knowing and believing in your topic helps in the way you present it. I read a wide variety of blog posts and there are some I struggle with. I give them about a month and if I am still struggling then I let them slide. Others I find engaging, informative or amusing and want to return regularly.
Brighid - Your posts are the right length for me, the content keeps me interested.
Nick - The great thing about blogs is that there is no obligation to hang around waiting for every post. There is such a wide variety out there…. something for all of us.
Magpie11 said,
September 12, 2009 at 7:12 pm
What we all need is what a tutor at College had…a dog…called Dog..that used to sit at the back of the room and after half an hour get up and walk out. “Oh! I see Dog’s bored again. Good afternoon (or morning) Gentlemen.” and off he would go…..
As for attention spans….these days they are remarkably shor….
kenju said,
September 12, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Grannymar, I am hoping it wasn’t my post you were referring to!
Lily said,
September 12, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Twitter is a great discipline for getting a message across with few words!
Grannymar said,
September 12, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Magpie - I knew a clergyman whose wife sat in the front row and when she looked at her watch he knew it was time to wind up for the day! That dog sounds very intelligent… did it do exams?
Judy - No way, I enjoy your posts and your flowers.
Lily - It is indeed!
Baino said,
September 12, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I don’t go to Church so the length of the sermon doesn’t bother me a jot. Long posts don’t bother me either if they’re interesting. Some are just self indulgent prose and I lose patience and skim. I’m sure some of my commenters do to when I’m on a roll. I’m a wordsmith so tend to waffle a bit. Then other times, I’ll just say it with pictures. Takes longer to post but the message is there. Horses for courses I say. Diversity is King.
Darlene said,
September 12, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Guilty, guilty, guilty. My posts are too long. I need an editor.
Betty said,
September 12, 2009 at 11:46 pm
We had a minister once who was so long-winded, many people in the congregation set their wrist-watch alarms to go off at 11:55 a.m. He finally left for greener pastures, but never shortened his sermons.
Jean Browman--Cheerful Monk said,
September 13, 2009 at 2:53 am
I tend to skim or go elsewhere if the post is too wordy. Whenever possible I include a relevant picture in my posts and will break the post into sections if I need many words.
wisewebwoman said,
September 13, 2009 at 5:37 am
Gr8 pst GM LOL
XO
WWW
Grannymar said,
September 13, 2009 at 9:26 am
Baino - You write as you speak. It is just like sitting in your lounge-room listening to you. Well… as I imagine it would be in your lounge-room.
Darlene - Not true, I said ‘he’! And for all my Toyboys, worry not, it was a new blog to me, not one I will visit very often.
Betty - Did he move or was he moved?
Jean - ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ or so the Newspaper Editors say.
WWW - k tks!
I am not saying long posts are bad. Some are very interesting and well set out making them accessible & interesting to the reader. The one I read the other day was one long continuous paragraph, as dull as ditch water. Previous posts were similar and there were no comments. I don’t even remember now how I landed there in the first place.
gaelikaa said,
September 13, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Well, I’d got into a habit of writing very long posts on my first blog so I started a second blog for tags, memes and short posts. The posts are getting longer, though.
Incidentally, priests in general tend to preach boring, irrelevant sermons, I’m sorry to say, as a dedicated churchgoer. If they would only preach on the right subject - the Word of God - they would have people wanting more and more and more….
Grannymar said,
September 13, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I think I have written three long posts in the three years of my blogging. I am more inclined to use fewer words! Just as well since I can’t spell!
Rowan Manahan said,
September 14, 2009 at 9:54 am
“Few souls are saved after the first 20 minutes of the sermon” (Mark Twain)
Alice said,
September 21, 2009 at 8:48 pm
(Just catching up here after a busy week last week!) I see I’ve missed a lot going on. Your surgery is over! Glad to see that and how well you’re doing apparently as you’re already home and getting used to walking “with two legs the same length.” That must feel good again, or will when you’re completely pain free. I must say that your can do attitude under the circumstances is commendable. With an attitude like that you’ll be up and about dancing and riding that fancy bicycle or some other in no time at all. Whew! (There I go writing one of those longgggg sentences and expecting everyone to like reading them. I blame my wordiness on being born in the American south and growing up reading William Faulkner. Now that was one long winded chap.) Anyhow, Grannymar, I’m really happy you’re doing so well.