I am a Canadian living in Toronto, and I am quite removed from the things you write about. I regularly clean out my inbox, deleting things I don't have time for and in some cases piling links into a folder for another day. I want you to know that your updates are always left in my inbox at the end. The entire thing is always purged except one e-mail containing one of your posts, and I try to make time to read it. And if I am ever too busy, and I ever do delete it, it is always with regret, after it has lingered in there for many days like a shim wedged in a door.
I’m from Guelph and echo this statement. And since leaving X, I’ve found myself missing Hickman’s linguistic ramblings because I’m not social media as much anymore.
I may have to subscribe to him and unsubscribe as a way of making a donation to him. Unfortunately, I don't even have time to read all the free stuff, so I can't benefit from subscribing for more content...
This is re the comment that you're too verbose. I think I know what the dude means, but verbose isn't the right word for it. Verbose means you're using more words than is necessary to say what you mean. I don't think that's the case.
I think what the dude is trying to say is that you have way more story to tell than he is willing to listen to.
I've run into that myself. I'm a slow talker so people often want to move on before I'm done with my story. It's people I wouldn't invite to my campfire.
I think that before people sit down to one of your stories, they should light up a cigar and pour themselves a drink and then start reading, take a puff or two, blow out a smoke ring, tap some ashes off the end of the cigar while savoring what they've just read before moving on to read some more.
The man who thinks you're too verbose needs to take a three day train ride like Oakland to Chicago some time, go up to the observation car and listen to someone tell him their life story. Learn some patience.
The gift of hospitality is the glue which holds a people together. It is unpretentious and cares not if the floor is swept or the roast burned. It is fast becoming a lost art but to have experienced it is to experience one of the greatest joys of humanity.
Lovely Andy, you are an artist! It’s interesting for me to read your perspective of Iowa, having had a stint as a cell tower technician there a number of years ago. I wasn’t in a romantic place internally, and took in the region as an ugly expression of industrial agriculture. You’ve changed my heart on it. I can see it as a space for friendship, family, simplicity, study and worship. With the rich soils, come strong roots. Thanks for sharing the beauty of Iowa and friendship.
Your adjectives and descriptors paint lovely mental images. Keep up the passionate prose my friend. Those who read the printed word in (gasp) paper form are certainly up to the challenge.
Your writing is overly verbose - it's like someone is forcing you to use every adjective and descriptor. Drop the thesaurus and be natural. Also, what's up the italiacs?
> And yet I had not signed the document, nor had she: I had no volition in these matters at all, and neither did she — but where I smiled, she wept, and as such, a friendship had to die for reasons that remain entirely abstract.
No. They were abstract to you. They were not so abstract to the woman; they were as palpable as the thirteen cavities in your teeth which you saw fixed when joined the Coast Guard.
I love your writing and your spirit, and don't care to quibble with you about politics; I support your journey, $8 a month's worth. But you are missing something here. Perhaps your wife's life as descendant of woman upon wise woman allowed her, and the women of that clan, freedom from the necessity of medicine-driven health care; perhaps they had options. Most women do not, and your former friend's anguish at the government's impending intrusion into her womb seems to be a matter of the human experience to which you have a bit of a blind spot; this is a shame.
The death of Roe v. Wade - and you're the one who brought it up - is a blow against the freedom of women and their bodies. For someone who otherwise seems to so instinctively grasp the importance of autonomy towards our finding our destiny, this blind spot is a conspicuous shortcoming. You have chosen - CHOSEN - a dogma which binds others against their will. It is ironic, I suppose; I'm sure you more than most others understand the manner in which womens' choices are so often prescibed for them in ways which limit their agency.
It is sad that you lost this friend, sadder still that you abstract the story to a level of generality where you don't need to engage how your views were of the very sort limiting her agency. Your words are quite clever, but you elide the problematic truth by saying you "had not signed the document." Indeed you had not, but your friend was not lost because you signed a document; it was lost because you failed to esteem her liberty in the way you esteem your own.
Where in Iowa?? We live in Des Moines & attend the beautiful TLM here, and my husband works in rural hospitals in both the north western corner and the far south eastern corner of the state. So curious where you found this lovely bit of Iowa.
I am a Canadian living in Toronto, and I am quite removed from the things you write about. I regularly clean out my inbox, deleting things I don't have time for and in some cases piling links into a folder for another day. I want you to know that your updates are always left in my inbox at the end. The entire thing is always purged except one e-mail containing one of your posts, and I try to make time to read it. And if I am ever too busy, and I ever do delete it, it is always with regret, after it has lingered in there for many days like a shim wedged in a door.
I’m from Guelph and echo this statement. And since leaving X, I’ve found myself missing Hickman’s linguistic ramblings because I’m not social media as much anymore.
I may have to subscribe to him and unsubscribe as a way of making a donation to him. Unfortunately, I don't even have time to read all the free stuff, so I can't benefit from subscribing for more content...
This is re the comment that you're too verbose. I think I know what the dude means, but verbose isn't the right word for it. Verbose means you're using more words than is necessary to say what you mean. I don't think that's the case.
I think what the dude is trying to say is that you have way more story to tell than he is willing to listen to.
I've run into that myself. I'm a slow talker so people often want to move on before I'm done with my story. It's people I wouldn't invite to my campfire.
I think that before people sit down to one of your stories, they should light up a cigar and pour themselves a drink and then start reading, take a puff or two, blow out a smoke ring, tap some ashes off the end of the cigar while savoring what they've just read before moving on to read some more.
The man who thinks you're too verbose needs to take a three day train ride like Oakland to Chicago some time, go up to the observation car and listen to someone tell him their life story. Learn some patience.
Incredibly encouraging! Thanks Wolfgang, I appreciate the kind words.
The gift of hospitality is the glue which holds a people together. It is unpretentious and cares not if the floor is swept or the roast burned. It is fast becoming a lost art but to have experienced it is to experience one of the greatest joys of humanity.
"The starving are often obese." So true.
I am glad you enjoyed your visit to my native state.
Yes, oh yes, thank you. From Ames, Iowa.
Ah man, this is something else… phenomenal 👏
just beautiful!
Some powerful sentences in there.
I love this
Your voice reminds me of another Iowan. Robert James Waller. The timing of this piece resonates for me. Thx amigo.
Lovely Andy, you are an artist! It’s interesting for me to read your perspective of Iowa, having had a stint as a cell tower technician there a number of years ago. I wasn’t in a romantic place internally, and took in the region as an ugly expression of industrial agriculture. You’ve changed my heart on it. I can see it as a space for friendship, family, simplicity, study and worship. With the rich soils, come strong roots. Thanks for sharing the beauty of Iowa and friendship.
Captured perfectly.
Your adjectives and descriptors paint lovely mental images. Keep up the passionate prose my friend. Those who read the printed word in (gasp) paper form are certainly up to the challenge.
Your writing is overly verbose - it's like someone is forcing you to use every adjective and descriptor. Drop the thesaurus and be natural. Also, what's up the italiacs?
For someone used to gen Z babble, that might seem so, however, one who appreciates well written content will appreciate some diversity in verbiage!
Pretty ironic statement from someone using your pseudonym.
> And yet I had not signed the document, nor had she: I had no volition in these matters at all, and neither did she — but where I smiled, she wept, and as such, a friendship had to die for reasons that remain entirely abstract.
No. They were abstract to you. They were not so abstract to the woman; they were as palpable as the thirteen cavities in your teeth which you saw fixed when joined the Coast Guard.
I love your writing and your spirit, and don't care to quibble with you about politics; I support your journey, $8 a month's worth. But you are missing something here. Perhaps your wife's life as descendant of woman upon wise woman allowed her, and the women of that clan, freedom from the necessity of medicine-driven health care; perhaps they had options. Most women do not, and your former friend's anguish at the government's impending intrusion into her womb seems to be a matter of the human experience to which you have a bit of a blind spot; this is a shame.
The death of Roe v. Wade - and you're the one who brought it up - is a blow against the freedom of women and their bodies. For someone who otherwise seems to so instinctively grasp the importance of autonomy towards our finding our destiny, this blind spot is a conspicuous shortcoming. You have chosen - CHOSEN - a dogma which binds others against their will. It is ironic, I suppose; I'm sure you more than most others understand the manner in which womens' choices are so often prescibed for them in ways which limit their agency.
It is sad that you lost this friend, sadder still that you abstract the story to a level of generality where you don't need to engage how your views were of the very sort limiting her agency. Your words are quite clever, but you elide the problematic truth by saying you "had not signed the document." Indeed you had not, but your friend was not lost because you signed a document; it was lost because you failed to esteem her liberty in the way you esteem your own.
Where in Iowa?? We live in Des Moines & attend the beautiful TLM here, and my husband works in rural hospitals in both the north western corner and the far south eastern corner of the state. So curious where you found this lovely bit of Iowa.