22 Words

Exercises in getting to the point (or avoiding it) by saying what I have to say in twenty-two words, not counting titles.

Archive for February, 2008

Happy Leap Day! (I missed out on the festivities, but at least I can report on them.)

They had a who-can-get-the-farthest-in-two-leaps (that’s one word) contest at DG today. Ten folks jumped, including 2 remote employees who participated via YouTube.


Reason #7 for why everything is 22 words

To say something worthwhile this short, you have to pay attention to little things.

Then these add up to big things.

Hopefully.

(See the other 6 reasons.)

I suppose O’Connor wouldn’t think much of blogging, then.

Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.

-Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners, 84

Concision doesn’t impair importance.

The most important claim in Scripture—what all the rest of the Bible must be founded on—is the shortest: “I AM.”

“May I have breakfast? May I have breakfast? May I have breakfast?”: Another way I’m not like God

Sometimes I get annoyed and tell my son to stop asking me for what he already knows I’m going to give him.

The addictive respite of delusion

When someone is suffering … asking him to be undeluded by momentary uplifting, however dubious its rationale, is asking an awful lot.

-Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 125

I’ve got my dad counting words during his devotions. Here’s Matthew 21:44.

The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

There are no words for my speechlessness.

I want to remember this as I try to think before I speak.

If I feel compelled to point out that what I’m doing is from love, that may be a sign it actually isn’t.

“We Weep in Faith” – free mp3

Jason Harms just posted a song he recorded that I wrote the words for. The music is Finlandia. The interpretation is Harms’s.

Um…I don’t follow, but, sure, I guess, if you want it to be.

I told my boss
that all
the posts at this blog
will be 22
words long.

He asked:

“What is it—
poetry?”

The thing is, is that there are too many izzes.

I often hear the construction, “The thing is, is that…” But tonight was the first time I heard, “Here’s the thing is…”

Reason #6 for why everything is 22 words

More ink is not always more meaning. Sometimes the blank space where you didn’t write says more than if you’d filled it.

(Read the other 5 reasons, if you want to.)

Galatians 4:24 – “Now this may be interpreted allegorically…”

How does Paul know what can be interpreted allegorically? Does he have license to find behind-the-scenes meaning in any story? Do we?

He’s got some important words in his vocabulary, though.

It probably means I’m too strict if my 3-year-old tells me, “While I’m going potty, I need you to give me mercy.”

The first thing I saw when I got to church

A sign advertising an upcoming Sunday school class:

There’s still time to register for The Kingdom of God.

That’s true, I suppose.

We watch “The Goat Song” every day.

Here’s a favorite in our household. “The goat song,” as Orison calls it. Yodeling, castles, tubas, romance. What else do you need?

An old joke you’ve probably heard

Rene Descartes walks into a bar. Bartender says, “You gonna have a drink?” Descartes replies, “I don’t think I am,” then disappears.

Some tables at restaurants should come with discounts.

I’d like to be an interior designer and plan restaurants without a single bad place to sit. It shouldn’t be that hard.