Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The ability to immediately talk at length about a topic often shows a lack of forethought.

“I could talk for hours about this.”

I have heard that many times. I have said it a few times. What I later learned after saying it myself was that I had failed to think about “this.” I didn’t quite understand “this,” I had not organized what little I did know, and I wasn’t able to state cogent thought.

Sometimes—unfortunately—I have sat while others started talking at length about “this.” Rambles and rumbles and other things like that followed at length.

Often the “talk for hours” was cut short by the other person asking me to write an organized, clear explanation for what was in their head. They didn’t have the time for such banalities as clarity and brevity. “Someone like me” could do that for them. It seems that banal persons like me were good for little else than tending to the details. They, however, needed to move on to create other original creative concepts.

This is a variation on the old saying, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”

Please, take more time.