Speaking with Authority

If you've got an astute detective's eye, you can see that I haven't posted anything here in a few years. This absence has been, in part, because my study of martial arts has grown to encompass my speech. Years ago, I deeply enjoyed the sound of my own voice (and its virtual manifestation on the internet). Rarely would a week go by without me cooking up at least two or three essays showcasing my "keen" insight into the universe. A few years in the trenches, working as a public defender, getting married, and most recently having a baby, have made me a lot less talkative. You could say that the world (along with my budo practice) has educated me in how much I don't know. As such, I try not to say much unless I really know about it, and it really has merit.

My time is so precious these days that I can't afford to squander it on "wasted speech". In fact, if you have been reading this blog for a while, you will realize that I have excised some of the more wasteful articles.

I try to ask myself three questions before I say anything:

1. What am I trying to express?

2. Why am I trying to express it?

3. With this medium and this audience, how likely is it that the message will successfully transmit?

That said, going forward, it is my hope that I only write about something when I take the topic and vet it against those three questions. Writing really only comes alive when it comes from the heart and rings of truth.