a Journey of Work

  Audience analysis is relatively new term for me, but a very old practice. We learned it in 4-H as we prepared speeches and demonstrations. In high-school I encountered it in my studies of rhetoric. In college it was covered in introduction to communication, and practiced in every class that required a paper or presentation. In seminary it was part of preaching class, and an important part of every writing assignment. When I went into ministry, I had to do audience analysis every single week as I prepared to speak, or teach, or write. I had to research audiences in churches I had never been to before, in states I have never set foot in. It was not easy to find what I need for small congregations in little places that barely featured on the map. Still, it had to be done. True, I was typically presenting a message I had mastered, and the content didn’t really change; but the way I presented it did. I had to use references they were relevant, and language that would connect. I ...

 I started writing seriously when i was fifteen. My dad and paid for and helped my build a computer as a birthday present that year, which meant I had a word processor all to myself. I wrote song lyrics, poetry, short stories, and of course school reports. I was not very good at all. I had no understanding of punctuation (I'm still a bit unsure on comas), and my phrasing was uninspired. Still I enjoyed it enough to keep at it.  The other thing I kept doing was reading. I had always read voraciously, but now I was seeking out great authors. It seemed to me the way to learn how to write better was the see how the very best writers did it. I would read Poe or Twain, Dante, or Dumas and try to ape their style.  In college I had to write a lot more. I had to learn style guide first MLA, and then APA. I didn't enjoy writing those reports, it was tedious and tiresome to me, but I could break it up writing a little here and there and it wasn't so bad. I found it also helped my ed...

 About the time my family started setting-up to farm I was pledging my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hand to larger service, and my health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world. 4-H would become one of my major commitments throughout junior-high and high-school. It was program with enough depths and width to keep an aspiring renaissance man engaged. I learned public speaking with 4-H a skill that I would lean on heavily years later. I also learned how to make posters, and even comic books: haven't done quite as much with those. I explored web-design at Tech Camp, and responsibility as volunteer leader at youth camp. I traveled hours away from home for the first time attend academic conference on the UT Knoxville Campus. I competed in interviews on the state-level. At the end of my career I even served as minority representative on the student government for the entire state. I helped plan events for an organization of over ...

 My first exposure to real work was on my family's farm. It was difficult work, building fences, mucking the barn, tossing hay, clearing brush, splitting wood, and stacking 50lb feed sacks among other things. We were out from sun-up to sun-down in the sweltering summers, and wind chilled winters. We raced against storms, and fought against hard-baked clay. We had cows, and goats, and chickens, ducks, and rabbits, a handful of dogs and cats, and two old horses to care for each and every day. I did not appreciate any of it at the time. I wanted to stay inside and work on my writing, or drawing.Nevertheless, I was need outside filling up water troth, and gathering eggs. It was till much later that I appreciated what the farm work had done for me, but eventually I found out. I knew how to work hard. I knew how to push through exhaustion and frustration and keep working.  I knew how to handle heat and cold. I knew what patience was from wrangling all that livestock. I learned how t...