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Short & Sweet
Lisa Hoffman and Charles Atkins Published December 1, 2005
For various reasons, Lisa and I will be trying a shorter format. "I don’t know about this," she begins. "I have a way of embroidering things, as you know. And once, there was a woman I knew, a little like you. She was always saying ‘come to the point’. Finally, I’d had it and told her, ‘but you’re trying to make a Picasso out of a Rubens.’" "That may be," I reply, "but editors want columns no longer than 750 words. Some want them even shorter. We’ve been running quite long. It’s time to cut to the chase, and stop beating around the bush." "You know, I have a friend who’s even worse than I am," Lisa says. "She loves to go into every detail. A friend once remarked that if you ‘ask her what time it is, she’ll build you a clock.’" "Which gets to an interesting point," I say, "if everyone wants shorter stories, and news shows have turned into assemblages of rapid-fire sound bites, what does this say about how we think? Have we become a nation with Attention Deficit Disorder?" "It could be," she says. "Young people talk so fast you can’t tell what they’re saying. It’s all rush rush rush. What’s the hurry? Where’s everyone going? I think things actually move slower because people have to repeat what they’re saying to be understood. Everyone’s trying to save time, like with answering machines, but in the end they waste time. Plus, it’s the details that make things beautiful and meaningful and we’re being deprived." "But on the flip side," I say, "there’s so much more information coming at us that there’s a growing competition for our attention. It used to be there were three television stations, now there are hundreds, and on-demand movies, and Tivo and the Internet. Every day I hear of new technologies or interesting blogs, chat-lines, or list serves that if only I had the time, I might like to check them out. For instance, I belong to a chat room for Mystery Writers of America—a group comprised of published novelists. On any given day I’ll have thirty or more emails just from that room, most of which I delete, but sometimes you want to join the discussion on what’s the best way to get rid of a body, latest updates on DNA testing, successful marketing strategies, or could somebody really hide a mistress from their wife for thirty years." "I can appreciate all that information," Lisa says. "But we have lost something important--the art of communicating. We now correspond in telegram style. Most emails are brief and lack warmth. Whereas, when we had time to write letters and tell about our lives, or even a simple thank-you note, it expressed something that emails can’t." "I disagree. Emails are what we make of them, for instance you just received a beautiful one with several pictures of you and some children who came to visit in their Halloween costumes. Imagine how difficult that would have been without email and digital photography." "I’m not taking that away. But it’s all so rushed. You get dozens of emails a day, and you go through them in minutes. And let’s face it, you don’t keep emails for ever and ever, and one day read them and get sentimental over them. Whereas some of us still have boxes of letter that we treasure, because they bring back memories." "True, but I wonder if that’s more a personality thing. I bet if you ever got on the Internet, you’d save every email. I’m not one who hangs onto a lot of things. But prior to computers I wrote in journals and all of those I still have—boxes of them. There is something to be said for opening one of those ringed binders and remembering my days working on a Boston ambulance or as a medical student having to care for patients for the very first time." At which point I check our word count and see that we’re at 679. "We need to bring this to a stunning conclusion in the next seventy words. Ready?" "I’m not happy about this," she repeats. "It’s like having an operation and waking up with a few important bits missing. Only this is parts of my mind. I like to ramble." "No one said you can’t. Just do it faster." "But…" "Come to the point." "But…" "Short and sweet." "But…" "And…times up. See you next week."
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