Dear Reader:

So much of the beauty around us is shared in short intervals of natural brevity. When I saw these Japanese Maples Tuesday afternoon while walking I knew ( like my grandchildren’s Japanese Maples) that the clock was ticking and tomorrow the leaves could well have fallen to the ground.

The clock was ticking. I remember one of my high school English teachers warning us that if we ever decided to write a short story we needed to know that the reader would decide whether to continue reading after the first line and the length of it. The clock was ticking.

Someone asked Woodrow Wilson how long he would prepare for a 10-minute speech. He replied “Two weeks.”

“How long for an hour speech?” “One week.”

“How long for a two-hour speech?” “I am ready now.”

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We all know there is merit in condensing long speeches and even longer writings and it is probably one of the reasons we are all drawn to quotes…they quickly sum up a feeling without elaboration. Here are some discussing the merits of a few, carefully chosen words over lengthy diatribes.

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. Blaise Pascal

I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter. Benjamin Franklin

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. (Henry David Thoreau…offering advice to a friend on writing)

Twitter followers  pride themselves on coming up with more and more coded letters to use in place of letter-forming-complete words.

We all fall back on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as the ultimate example of how less is more when it comes to saying the right thing at the right moment, with the exact right words for the greatest impact on the audience’s memory.

FDR summed it up quite simply when he advised:

“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”

Second only to the Gettysburg Address, FDR’s famous speech following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor almost wasn’t…at least without some tweaking.

Roosevelt’s original draft called it “a date which will live in world history” … But with one masterful tweak…it was the forceful brevity of that speech at such a crucial moment in U.S. history that is still remembered today…and a substitute of one word “infamy” for two words…world history. What a difference!

I just learned recently that many bloggers are going to (what is called) “blogettes.” Short little blogs…based on the idea that readers like quick, short thoughts and then they want to be on their way.

Like many of my generation I feel torn between short memorable words and/or thoughts just incompletely expressed. In our fast-paced world of communication…where shortened news, computer blurbs over sentences, coded acronyms over complete words prevail…an important question remains unanswered for me…where/when does verbal dissection end?

No more love letters wrapped with ribbon in one’s treasure box in the attic? No more reading of the classics of literature or famous biographies because of the “wordiness” and length of the book? No more study and understanding of our country’s most famous documents on freedom because they are written in cursive and students today aren’t taught cursive?

Aristotle believed in “moderation in all things” ….and some days I feel like “moderation” has become a recluse hiding out somewhere far away from the main stream of America.

So until tomorrow…I think today’s blog falls under the category  of “You Know  You’re Getting Old When...” 🙂

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

More beauty to enjoy now and hopefully tomorrow too…another day, another walk.