There are things we know, things we know we don't know...

What's the tone of everything that will follow here? That's rhetorical, y'know; it's meant to take up a little digital space whilst I put the final tweaks on stating my perspective on what my missives 'do'.

It's all about perspective, a view of things from different vantage points. I've got a zen buddhist perspective on life, and part of that perspective is analgous to a Japanese garden (yeah, I'm going in a lot of parallel directions here, so bear with me and sit back for a moment or two). Without going into the actual philosophy of why a Japanese garden is designed the way it is, and the whole tranquility thing, one of the design elements is the rocks-as-islands in an ocean of pebbles, and in order to see all of the islands, you have to shift your position, because the placement of the islands hides other islands from view. Want to appreciate all of the beauty? Want to get the complete picture? Then you have to accept that there is something unseen, and you need to move around the garden if you want to see all of the islands.

Perspective.

There's a line that I'll always try not to cross, accept when absolutely necessarry, and that's the preach line (for a stellar example of a when a particular sermon SHOULD be preached, have a look at the heartfelt ode to young men presented on Vincenzo's by RW on Father's Day). I figure there are enough preachers preaching all sorts of shit at us, and many of them make millions of dollars preaching at us from their media pulpits on Fox, CNN, and other churches of loud opinions. I like to try and point out things, maybe give some direction, a little guidance, and let everyone go off and find out things on their own.

This is what I mean by perspective.

Due to my thirty years of working in and around the media industry, in many of its different guises, I have a few insights on things and, therefore, feel the need to share these insights with y'all on occasion. Sometimes I'll share media insights, much as Maureen Dowd shared with her readers when she wrote about the President's televised speech from New Orleans post-Katrina, and how much lighting and other accoutrement was brought in to keep the video production values high, because if you're delivering your speech from hell on Earth, you want to make sure the backdrop is as pretty as possible (if anyone can find the link to her NY Times piece on that, let me know and i'll put it in here).

Other times, I'll share insights about, well, insights, about how to look at things, at people, at stories, differently. For instance, as a writer, I've learned the value that 'place' has next to interviews. You can get all the 'facts' from interviewing someone, in person or on the phone (email interviews are another case entirely, and they'll come up in later posts), but going to a place, observing the environment connected to the interview subject, can provide a perspective that could never be uncovered otherwise. I've been following a story for quite a long time, and it involves a young person with a pretty severe handicap. We've got a heck of a relationship by now, and I know this person really, really well, but when this person was still in high school, I arranged to follow this person around school for the day, because I knew it was important, because I'd find out something that I couldn't find out any other way.

I observed lots of things: the relationships with other students, the motorized wheelchair scooting down the hall between classes, the assistance with opening books, stuff like that. Nothing of great revelation there.

The great revelation was what I didn't see: since the student is a tetraplegic (quadriplegic is an older term now), the list of what didn't happen was so much more insightful than anything else: no passing of notes; no leaning over and whispering to someone; no tossing something across the room; no turning around to see what the commotion was about in the back room The absence of these otherwise normal student activities from my observed student's life was a revelation.

It shifted my perspective.

If you're going to promote yourself as knowing something, make sure you know it from different persectives, is all I'm saying (ah, shit, I know I'm saying a lot more than that, but you know what I mean...). "Less conjecture, more insights" is a nice mantra. Opinions are fine, and positions are necessary, but know what the hell you're talking about, and make the attempt to form your opinions and stake out your position based on really giving a shit on being as accurate as you can be. You watch CNN? Then at least linger on Fox every now and then. Can't stand a person's politics? Leave some room to love the person. Don't like today's post? At least check out tomorrow's. Impressed by the statistics they just threw at you? Find out where they came from (the Cato Institute? Heritage Foundation? Insurance Industry Association?).

Doesn't that beautifully lit building all aglow behind the President look really pretty against the darkness of hell? Ask why.

I'll help you shift your perspectives, you help me shift mine, we'll all have a good time...or something like that.