As I work on the
Deepest Health redesign, but also
my (our) clinic I am occasionally paralyzed. This mostly has to do with one unavoidable fact. The vast, vast, vast majority of information out there about health, wellness, Chinese medicine and the rest, regardless of intended audience, is unbelievably boring. One of my least favorite posts is the, "
This is what Chinese medicine thinks about the Spring season" type of post.
I've written a couple of posts like that and I tried to make it less boring by making it more scholarly. My thought was that the "boring" came from it being "shallow." The shallowness comes from the fact that most people in Chinese medicine learn that little Neijing chart of correspondences, but learn them like they're learning the dials on their dashboard from their car's owner's manual. Mechanistic, simplistic, boring. Boring, boring, boring. Unfortunately, I don't think that "more scholarly" is what MOST people want or need.
So, my job right now is figuring out how to write what I want/need to write and not fall into the boring trap. But, I must also avoid the "being more scholarly will make this less boring" trap. At the same time, I must be wary of the "desecrating the medicine by making Chinese medicine like totally web 2.0" trap. So many traps, so few escape routes. Good thing I'm in a couple of writing classes right now. Phew. I'm also surrounded by some pretty not-boring writers. They all have different ways of approaching things, but it's all incredibly helpful.
Yeah, thinking as I'm writing, I'm struck by the thought that the main tension is this...
I want to have some depth and some scholarly rigor (cause, you know, I'm LIKE that), also be accessible (cause, you know, not everybody is a Chinese medicine DORK) and also be deeply engaging (cause, you know, that's what makes people want to actually DO something). Check out THAT sentence.
It's tough to balance those factors. I'm not sure I'm often very successful. But, I plan to keep trying. Thoughts?
This blog has turned into chiefly a personal development blog. It's mostly a journal for myself and myself only, but sometimes has bits of information of interest to others - thus I've made it public. I do share random weirdness I find on the web, reflect on features of our shared existence, and so on.