We all can be thankful for the 'delete' key.

I don't keep blogs that I don't publish. I could but I don't. I have written quite a few that filled up the page but in the end I just couldn't send them out. I know what some of you are thinking. If there is a reject process, then how does any of them make it to the electronic publisher? Point well taken. And, in this case, I neither deny the allegation nor do I question the motives of the alligator. I have often made it clear that when the writer and the fact checker and the editor are all one and the same person, well, you end up with 1,042 episodes of cobbled together words called The View From Here. Welcome anyway. Good to have you stop by. Hope all is well in your world on this Thursday, June 9, 2011. The last in-progress episode to face the delete key was one I had developed about Charles Dickens. Most everyone read Dickens in their school years and we all know that his legacy continues today via all the plays, television programs, and movies that carry his themes and plots. A number of years ago I discovered a letter he wrote to the London Times in 1849 giving his eyewitness account of the public execution of a husband and wife. It was a fascinating letter that showed his eye for detail. At any rate, I had some thoughts about him, his life, and that particular letter but the further I went the more I realized that it just couldn't pass muster, therefore, it went into what the computer geeks used to call the bit bucket. That pass muster idiom by the way most likely originated when troops were assembled and inspected which may have later spawned the 'cut the mustard' phrase that most of us are familiar with. I knew that inquiring minds would want to know.


I think the real test for me is when I read something I've written but conclude "there is no there there". That is a quote from Gertrude Stein but it means to me what you see or don't see almost everyday. Take for instance the press briefings by the White House Press Secretary. The current fellow, Jay Carney, is new at it. It shows. His circular answers that go nowhere and answer nothing are on one level comical and enjoyable to watch, while on another they are very frustrating to those trying to get some information from him. He does have that proverbial deer in the headlights look about him and his comments come across as being scripted but intended to sound unscripted which makes the lack of substance even more glaring. It's one thing to engage in dialogue and end up with nothing but it's quite an interesting thing to see it done in an open and premeditated manner. Jay Carney reminds me of a fellow who worked for me many years ago. He had this habit of wanting to attach himself to any and all conversations. Therefore, he had these hook phrases that meant nothing but grabbed and held on. Someone would be describing a really complex technical problem. He would interject something about how difficult those are to solve. Hello? Repeat back a little of what was said but add absolutely nothing to making any progress at all. Do that all the time and pretty soon people will notice, not what you wanted them to notice, but something entirely different. I must confess that I get embarrassed watching Jay Carney, for him, but I also feel pained because of the absence of any substance regarding the serious problems we face as a nation. Not as consequential, but when I read something I write that gives me that same kind of feeling, it's goodbye yellow brick road.


I will admit that today's missive may be more MIA (missing in action) than informative but I'm actually too tired to delete another one. Come to think about it, I don't think my mother told me there would be days exactly like this one, but then again, way back then we would have been talking about stuff banged out on a typewriter onto the original with carbons, if you even remember how it used to work. Perhaps I should be the one posing for that deer in the headlights photo. Today it is quite different. The other day a 15 year old German girl made a mistake on her Facebook page and accidentally broadcast an invitation to attend her 16th birthday party. Instead of only her own personal friends, some 1500 people showed up. How do you like that for keystroke power?  It's kind of scary, and for some people, stories like that pretty much seals the deal, they want nothing to do with any of it. Now that you know that I often use the delete key, you have my permission to do the same with any of my blogs that seem not to be able to find their way. I continue, however, to know that any day where I leave a word from God, there will be at the least one treasure to discover. David was inspired to pen the words to the 139th Division of the Psalms. This psalm contains some of the greatest insights into God's personal knowledge and care for His own in all of The Scriptures. Here's its opening words:

1) O Lord, you have examined me, and you know me.
2) You alone know when I sit down and when I get up.
You read my thoughts from far away.
3) You watch me when I travel and when I rest.
You are familiar with all my ways.
4) Even before there is a single word on my tongue,
you know all about it, Lord.
5) You are all around me—in front of me and in back of me.
You lay your hand on me.
6) Such knowledge is beyond my grasp.
It is so high I cannot reach it.

If those words makes you want to go and read the rest of it, then my work for today is done. Have a good one and may God bless. Amen.         .....More later.