Best Work

I confess that I regularly check the stats on these Posts. If the readership of any one post is 75-100, as it often is, I’m content. If it’s 1 or 5, I smile and am not particularly upset, knowing that it will change. But occasionally, it makes big leaps, like today’s 2,532 (!) and I wonder what the heck is going on. Is this a Bot gathering, a random accidental confluence of readers, a reaction to what I wrote and people quickly spreading the word, “You’ve got to check this out!”

 

Maybe there’s a way to find out, but I have not the skills, time or energy to investigate. But it does make me think, “While the numbers are up, I should write something extra special!! I need to share my best work. Which is a surefire way to shoot myself in the writing foot and limp into the next Post. What to do?

 

Should I use this opportunity to advertise my new book on Jazz and Joy and Justice, due to be printed mid-September? Steer people toward the latest Film Festival showing of The Secret Songfilm? (Aug. 28, in Mt. View). Mention my upcoming Family Jazz Concert at SF Jazz in October? That would be the American way— shamelessly promote while the numbers are high. But of course, I wouldn’t do that. (Even though I just did).

 

I could open to just about any page in the extraordinary The Myth of Normal book I’m reading and marking with the margins with  “YES!!”  “x 1,000!” “You got that right!” “Eloquent summary!” Things like: 

 

“All in all, the system works with cyclic elegance: a culture founded on mistaken beliefs regarding who and what we are creates conditions that frustrate our basic needs, breeding a populace in pain, disconnecting from self, others, and meaning…”

 

That could make for an interesting family dinner conversation. Or staff meeting topic. 

 

Or I could mention someone’s Facebook post about how we create the conditions in schools that don’t serve children, then blame the children (or teachers) for their problems and try to “fix” them with strategies that won’t work because they ignore the very conditions that created the problems. When someone asked, “How?” I responded with:

 

“We addict kids to machines that are purposefully designed for addiction and hyper-speed, then label them with ADHD and drug them. We fail to give them work worthy of their genius, cutting out arts programs that foster needed self-expression and then wonder why they’re bored and not motivated. We fail to model an inclusive and loving community, set kids against each other with grades and then blame them for not being socially attuned to the group. We create high-stakes pressure to “succeed” and fuel anxiety and then try to solve it with paint-by-number SEL programs. Etc, etc, and again, etc.…”

 

Or I can get off the big picture social critique and level down to the writer’s best topics—the details of the here and now. Like the way the fruit flies have suddenly invaded the kitchen and are landing on our food. The way the big lake’s waters have warmed up a bit, but still bring this swimmer’s body alive with its cool caress. Or simply share a photo of my farewell toast to summer. 

Meanwhile, let’s see if whatever I have written attracts another 2,532 readers. Come aboard!