Not self help

This is not a self help book.

I'll admit there are some similarities. You might find a flow chart here or a seven step process there. You will probably read some poetry too mediocre to get published as poetry, and instead included here because it makes my point.

But this book differs from self help books in very important ways. First, it was not written by an educated man who is telling you that all he had to do to succeed was to have a good attitude. Thanks for that tip. I had no idea that all well off people needed to do to have success was to get their heads out of their asses. Maybe if the book included a copy of their diploma it would actually make me more effective.

There is no attractive picture on the flap of this book. While I suspect my fiancee actually finds me attractive, my looks have not been known to stop traffic or cure cancer patients. I do not have a finely chiseled chin, my smile does not gleam, and my hair does not do that wavy professional thing. Rather my teeth are a bit worse for wear after a childhood of stunts and my hair looks like an electrical burn victim.

Finally, and most importantly, this book is not trying to convince you that while you may have a problem you have the capacity solve your problem if only you listened to me.

It is for this reason that this is not a self help book.

Rather, this is an other help book.

Even as I write, I am trying to convince you that other people have a problem, lots of problems, actually, and that you are the one capable of solving them. This is not an equation for how to make your life better, but the lives of the people around you better.

The pages leading up to this one are stories of my life, an ongoing account of how I got to these ideas and how they changed me. But to be perfectly honest, I am basically done talking about me. From this point on, there will be a new subject.

You.

It is your life, your choices, and your actions that are now the defining drive behind this writing. See, the idea is pretty basic. I can't save the world alone. I could try my ass off, but even with the most brilliant of plans I am doomed to failure. But that is where you come in. Where WE come in. Solving world problems seems a bit out of reach for a single person. Even a few people. But what if the world tried to solve the world's problems? Seems like there would be just enough help to get it done.

My reason for writing this book: to get you to help me save the world. To that end, we need to change up the style of writing. Before, I was telling stories, stories you constructed imaginatively in order to visualize what had happened. But now your imagination needs to serve a different purpose. You need to imaginatively construct visions of what can happen.

This process involves telling you about problems in the world. It goes on to reflect on how to evaluate and solve them. And I'll be perfectly honest, I rely on some of the very same techniques used by the endless wading pool that is self help literature. Flow charts. Step by step processes. Crappy poetry. I'll never suggest that this book is better written.

But I do contend that this book has a better aim. I am not here to increase your satisfaction by making you be a better you. No, my goal, and I can only hope our goal, is to make a better world.
What could be more satisfying than that?

Fieldguides

When I imagine the format of short entries, side notes, and sketches... there are actually two varieties I think of.

The one is a clearly organized presentation of a set (like bugs, ferns, artifacts). This style is focused on classification and categorization... more like a pictorial encyclopedia. The other is a form is more like a journal plus sketchbook. Organized chronologically, this is an ongoing literary and artistic account of a set of events.

When I initially thought of the field guide, I was entertaining the first style. But the second is also possible. Now, this would involve writing them into a vague story... not that the story would be explicitly told... but that it would seem like there was one going on behind the scenes.

Now, I could make one up. Basically a fictional subplot. But... I could also tell the real one. It could involve the transformation going on in the youth group, my struggles with vegetarianism, trying to simplify my life. It could even end with my reflections about traveling in South America, the poverty there, and our power to fix it.

This could also include pictures, either straight in the document, or taken then rendered into sketches.

Hmmm.

Day 103

Ok.

November 14th.

Been thinking on a handful of ideas. I am at 33,000 words, and I have begun to really like one of the possible angles for this work.

A field guide for good works.

Field guide works for a few reasons:

Its allows for personal reflections about events (which I think necessary for this particular subject).

It has a focus on practicality (which pervades this project).

It creates a more one on one relationship with the reader.

It could have really cool drawings and overall production edginess.

It encourages the notion of personal responsibility for social change (like, alright, you've picked up the book... read it while you are out doing some good).

Those are my reasons for liking the field book idea.

My vision at this point is a kind of combination of entries, ranging from personal reflections (like field book observations), works within moral philosophical thinking (like the scientific content of field books), tips and pointers on practical moral issues, and prayers or self/group development activities and social change resources.

Whadda you think?

Project Possibilities

Ok, so we are past 25,000. In conversation with a few people (notably K and Mom), we have a few ideas for possible directions for the project. While I plan to continue writing much in the way I am now, it is worth considering a particular literary tack. The idea itself is starting to get pretty solid. What it lacks is any context, rhetorical grace, or rapport gaining mechanisms.

So... a few ideas.

A cross between a modern Poor Richards Almanac and an pacifist version of the Anarchists Cookbook. Entries are a mixture of moral reflections, tips for doing good, and mechanisms of social change.

A series of letters. Playing off of the Screwtape Letters and even a bit of St. Paul. Create a fictive situation and letter writer. Could be fantastical (angelic coorespondence, perhaps), psudo historical, or modern. Thoughts?

Working the reflections into an interveiw series, where I tell the stories of people I think embody the ideals I think so cool.

Weave the ideas into a universally written fiction, much like The Alchemist. Perhaps some kind of story about a heroes transformation from a self focuesed morality toward a world focused morality.

More to come. At this moment, I like the letter thing. Gives me the personal and authoritative I'm looking for.

What you can do...

Take a look at what is going on here. Comment, let me know what you think. At this point many of the ideas are embedded in those giant spew documents. Soon I'll be plucking an idea or three and treating them on their own.

Also very open to ideas about where this project can go. Put it in your head.