kidder’s book is worth it, absolutely. it’s somewhat of a sequel to his mountains beyond mountains, the story of paul farmer and his organization, partners in health, that originally gave the young burundian in “what strength remains” his first real hope in the US. farmer’s organization began with his untiring work in haiti, a country so tragically in the news.

i have a pile of books that i call my “stop whining please”, books. life can be exhausting, but perhaps most of us here can’t quite imagine how exhausting. these include “what is the what,” dave eggars’ story about a sudanese walking boy, (vintage 2007), “the places in between” an amazing story of tony stewart’s walk across afghanistan right after the fall of the taliban, “three cups of tea”, of course, and numerous others of this ilk. it’s a big world.

So far I have been unable to work the Twitter version into my life. I have 30 colleagues at work. I am unable to keep up with their lives – even the Twitter version. But they do feed me “links.” And then there’s e-mail. My Inbox is often brimful and begging for attention. In my work I must use e-mail and the internet – and the clipped communication that is characteristic – for many hours each day.

I need to balance that with learning activities that have less noise. Slow reads. Relaxed writing. That’s what this blog is about – occasional essays that are longer than most blogging. But this is what seems to be best feeding my needs in these times when I have precious little time to devote to the task.

But I’m sure Twitter will roost on my shoulder some day, tap on my consciousness, and find a way in. We’ll see.

I share the book passion, and the revelation regarding my consumption and the same questions that ensue. I agreed with myself recently about something I had been noticing for awhile, but not really responding to. Most books require more time to complete than the insights they offer in return. You know, they tell you what they’re going to tell you, then they tell you, then they tell you they told you. Oy! I get it already.

I call it the reggae syndrome. You know, all the reggae songs that are about how great reggae is (go ahead: substitute bluegrass, polka, the blues, etc.) in a self referential way that celebrates the [life]style as it legitimizes it. Too many books are like that.

So way fewer books for me. But I love great writing. Fortunately the New Yorker strikes a perfect balance there. That’s working. But I need to KNOW way more than the New Yorker can provide.

So my info consumption is now driven in bursts. By twitter. By the really smart people I follow and the links they feed me, pretty much in real time. And that is where the revelation came. I am learning more, way more, in significantly less time, about the things that I used to depend on books to provide over days of reading.

It won’t replace Vonnegut. But it provides a breadth of insights about the impacts of fossil fuel that is far wider than a road trip journal (which would no doubt be compelling). And though there are few greater Bruce Mau fans than me, I don’t need to read the book. I get it. Anyway, I follow him on twitter.

Change is not only inevitable, it is increasingly perplexing. We need to fathom a Babel-like carnival of cross talk from a non stop gusher of ideas and information to make some semblance of sense in order to even have a hope of finding that harness, let alone wrap it around the next surprise.

Like John, when I was 20 I was at the curb with my thumb out with no other destination than the unexpected. Like John I’m relearning resilience as I live the change that we’re surrounded by. It’s good to be back!