I have come to appreciate this more as my ability to read long nonfiction has been fading. It's a key reason why this is only my third blog entry this year. When I began this blog in 2012 I was writing almost two a week. The purpose was to highlight thoughts, ideas, and possibilities I would find largely through the reading of an average 25-30 nonfiction books a year from cover to cover and probably an additional number where I would read significant sections.
When dealing with complex or wicked problems, tweets and bullet points only nibble at the edges of understanding the breadth and depth and inter-connectedness of the issues. A full length manuscript allows the author to make a deeper and more full developed case for their analysis.
Sound bites neglect nuance, context, history. In our hurry to summarize, including my own failed blogs we miss vital pieces of understanding. I was reminded of this again this week when the Trump administration announced it was going to cut food stamps for 3,000,000 of those living in a fragile state. I wrote about food insecurity about a year ago referencing an insightful book on the rise of foodbanks.
I think its time for me to start reading what I wrote over the past nearly eight years, more than 260 posts. Here's that one that I wrote almost a year to the day. I may be forwarding others from the vault in the months ahead. http://possibilitator.blogspot.com/2018/07/
Extending the idea of what's possible - a rebuttal to Margaret Thatcher's "There is no alternative".
