What qualifies me to write essays? —The bricks and mortar of my edifice (Fourth Anniversary Essay)

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.    

I am not a mover and shaker, a politician, captain of industry, government official, or on the social registry.  I am not the director of a prestigious firm, the favorite son of the community, or on the board of directors of a business, board of education of a local school district, or on any board of trustees.  I am not an advisor to the local parish priest, church ministers, rabbi, or mullah, and my name is not synonymous with power, influence, and accomplishment.  So, why would anyone want to know my opinion on the issues of the day or accept any advice, suggestions, or direction I would choose to give?  Because I have asked myself this question, let me share with you how I have come to justify it — and, believe me, I have struggled with it before.
    
First, I come from a family of teachers.  My father, with his Ph.D. from Dartmouth, was a professor of conservation, Department of Natural Resources, at the University of Michigan, and my mother, with a Master’s Degree from Cornell, taught junior-high science.  Why would that have any influence on giving advice, suggestions, and direction — or on credibility?  Because the family was highly educated, it influenced both the nature and extent of family conversations and discussions.  Indeed, I married a Michigan graduate, the daughter of a professor from the University of Michigan.  My wife’s father received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, so, from the outset of my own marriage,  the quality of those family conversations and discussions continued.  Our children have often referred to them.  Such an environment cannot help but influence the way you think, believe, and act.
    
Second, I have both a B.A. and a Master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Indiana University.  Now, it is true that those credentials do not automatically grant a person license to dispense advice and counsel, especially any set of opinions not directly related to the field of specialty one studied.  In some circles, I’m sure, a Ph.D. suggests a level of expertise that clearly doesn’t exist, but there are a couple of things it guarantees.  It means you have spent more time in the process of formal education and, because the Ph.D. is a research degree, you have spent time investigating, supporting, and writing about ideas — what I like to call, immersing yourself in an ocean of knowledge and trying to make some sense out of occasional flotsam and jetsam.  (Speaking of flotsam and jetsam, I wrote a dissertation of over 350 pages on the Michigan Lyceum movement.)
    
One of the ancillary benefits of getting a Ph.D. is the automatic and important associations you have with a wide variety of highly educated people, whether they are your teachers, student colleagues, or the faculty and students on other campuses.  Then, because I directed a large basic-communication course for over twenty years, I came into contact with hundreds and hundreds of graduate students who taught for me.  They provided rich, varied, and hugely rewarding interactions and discussions.
    
Third, I have been a teacher for over 30 years.  What this means is that the act of giving advice and counsel is a natural one embedded in my behavior — and because of my family background, perhaps even in my genes.  From the first moment students appear before you in the classroom, you have a responsibility — an obligation — to share what you know.  You have chosen to teach—to help students learn.  This means that you study students’ backgrounds, knowledge, environment, and learning goals.  You deal with students of different abilities and those with learning disabilities too, and assist with learning outside the classroom as well.
    
A fourth qualification in my case is that I have  formalized a great deal of my advice and counsel in numerous publications.  Including all the editions of my textbooks, there have been over thirty.  There are close to 100 academic articles, chapters in books, and more than a dozen published speeches and the same number of published essays — plus over 200 essays on my blog.  I could not have continued this stream of publications if many of them had not been well received.  What this means is that there are people out there who are reading and appreciating my views.  There is an audience for what I have to say.  To those members of my audiences, of course, thank you.
    
But publications mean something much larger than simply pleasing readers, although that is important.  First, it provides a method for articulating — writing out in great detail — your thoughts and ideas.  Getting them down in writing, then polishing and honing those ideas, is an important process for clearly defining what you know and what you don’t know.  Second, because I write in the area of speech communication (my academic discipline), so much of what happens in the world applies.  Thinking and languaging processes, managing and resolving conflicts, family and relationship issues, cultural and intercultural concerns, interpersonal, small-group, and public communication issues all relate to what I think and write.  What this means is that to write knowledgeably requires that I read widely and broadly in order to bring new information, knowledge, ideas, facts, and opinions to bear on what I have to say.  
    
To be an informed writer means, necessarily, that I must bring into my own experience and understanding all the ideas from others I can discover that are significant, relevant, and interesting.  It is this constant quest to reach out and to add to what I know that may make me somewhat different than others and add, in an understated way, to the informed substructure from which I write and speak.
    
A fifth qualification is my own family.  I am the father of four and grandfather of 10.  I have lived through seven marriages, and I expect more.  Having been an active participant in my family, advice giving and dispensing “wise” counsel had to take place on a regular basis.  Just to be married to the same person for over 45 years suggests several things.  It means that you are secure in your own skin.  Such security gives you a base from which to operate and a solid foundation from which knowledge and ideas can grow and flourish.  It means, too, that you are able to share advice with another person, take part in meaningful dialogue, engage in positive and rewarding conversations, resolve conflicts and mange dissension together, and learn from the insights, knowledge, and perspectives of another person — especially a person of the opposite sex.  (It gives new meaning to “opposites attract.”)  For relationship partners, thinking and behaving differently is part of a couple’s lifetime of education and discovery.
    
A sixth qualification is the reading and viewing I do.  First I read (or look at) more than a half dozen magazines each week and two newspapers per day.  Second, going to the local libraries once a week, I search for and then review, on average, three or four new books each week.  (I have written close to 200 book reviews for Amazon.com.)  These are part of my Monday blog.  Third, I am a news junkie, and I spend most of my television time listening to news and opinion shows.  I have very few regular television programs that I watch unless they are news or opinion.
    
Let me add as a final, seventh qualification the fact that I have been giving advice on my blog for four years now.  That could reveal simple persistence or just an unwillingness to give up!  For me, it offers a useful history, significant background, and a valuable resource of ideas and opportunities.
    
It is the family of teachers into which I was born, my own academic credentials, my career as a teacher, my writing and publications, my reading and viewing, my experience, history, and background, as well as my own family that surrounds me with love and affection that form the bricks and mortar of the edifice known as me.  It may not seem like much, but it’s certainly a great deal more than the credentials of many people who give advice, and whether or not it truly qualifies me to give advice, the foundation is there, and I make use of it often.
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The most significant and worthwhile “advice book” I have written is entitled You Rules - Caution: Contents Leads to a Better Life. In 50 thoughtful, relevant, and important essays, this book discusses the foundations for a good life, offers suggestions and guidelines about being healthy, moving successfully toward your goals, becoming more creative, maintaining your progress, and looking toward a positive future.  It is practical, motivational, even inspirational.

There are two other “advice” books, too, that I have recently published. Public Speaking Rules: All You Need for a GREAT speech is based on over thirty years of writing on the topic in popular undergraduate college textbooks.  Public Speaking Rules can be read by anyone who wants to know the basic nuts-and-bolts of successful public speaking.  The second book, Relationship Rules: For Long-term Happiness, Security, and Commitment (with an outstanding cover painted by my son), is based on my best selling undergraduate, college textbook that went through seven editions.  It, too, can be read by anyone who wants to know the basic nuts-and-bolts of forming - and maintaining a successful relationship.
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Copyright September, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, L.L.C.