There’s a great scene in Amadeus when the Emperor is prompted by the disgruntled Salieri to tell an over-excited Mozart that his latest piece “has too many notes; just take some notes out”. It sometimes seems that there are too many words in a world drowning in noise and shouting for attention.
So, I was pleased to see how the Fabio Capello story was picked up recently. He has limited English (and how dare English journalists deride him for his poor English when knowledge by journalists of any language other than English is extremely rare) and is reported to have said that he only needs 100 words to do his team-talks:
If I need to speak about the economy or other things, I can’t speak… But when you speak about tactics, you don’t use a lot of words. I don’t have to speak about a lot of different things. Maximum 100 words.
What a star! And he makes a serious point. As Twitter has proved, much can be communicated in very few words and very little space. The concision concentrates the mind and excises the waffle. Fewer words can create better communication. On Pause for Thought on Radio 2′s Chris Evans Show we are allowed around 320 words with which to grab the attention, tease the imagination, say something and give a pay-off back into the programme.
I know I have mused on this matter many times before, but I wonder what sort of ‘team talk’ I could give to the Church in 100 words. Something that captures the ‘big picture’, earths it and encourages action/response. Here’s one for starters:
It’s all about God taking us and the world seriously. The Church is called to live life so that the world can see who and how God is – which looks like Jesus. God opts into the world as it is and does not exempt himself from it. So, live in the world, love it and open up to it the possibility of a different way. Start with you and yours. (71 words)
The former Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, did even better in summarising the Creed memorably as:
God is. God is as he is in Jesus. So, there is hope.
Further submissions welcome (but not on a postcard).
March 31, 2011 at 10:57 am
or, as Angela Tilby has been telling us in preaching class this term “Kill your dahlings” -however much effort they took to write, you can always cut some
March 31, 2011 at 11:37 am
Yesterday I read a blog post and here is the content:
There is no reason for hope in this world — not one glimmer — if Jesus Christ did not die and rise.
I’d been wading through deep theological blogs when I happened on this post, and it kinda succinctly summed it all up for me.
March 31, 2011 at 1:58 pm
These are words I wish weren’t in Capello’s 100: “stand still & pass it only backwards”, and “lampard”.
March 31, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Written language doesn’t work well in sermons anyway; we use one language for speaking, a subtly different one for writing (much more formal, usually), and it grates. The Good News Bible only uses around 1000 words (I think), and while I sometimes take issue with the translation, it’s ideal for reading aloud. We recently got new pew Bibles, and ended up with the NIV, with a much wider vocabulary. People struggle more when it comes to reading them aloud.
March 31, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Yes, and Capello is probably doing a great job (I wouldn’t know, I don’t follow football). But just as general comment: there’s a difference between using 100 words in one single piece of communication and having only a total of 100 words at your disposal.
April 1, 2011 at 9:56 am
I think the point of the article is not so much about the length at which people write or speak, but about the number of words in their vocabulary. According to the Oxford English Corpus the 100 most used English words do not include ‘God’, ‘Jesus’, ‘world’ or ‘love’. What can you say, then? Here is my attempt:
People can not do good. There is a good good one who can make people good because he like all people well.
That sounds more like Fabio!
April 1, 2011 at 12:16 pm
‘How dare English journalists deride him for his poor English when knowledge by journalists of any language other than English is extremely rare?’
Personally, I would have said:
‘How dare English journalists deride anyone else for a limited knowledge of English when their own is far too often littered with basic errors of grammar, syntax, punctuation and even spelling?’
On topic, how about:
‘God is love. Those who live in love, live in God, and he in them’?
From there, it’s possible to move on to the importance of Jesus, his life, teachings and resurrection. But those words from 1 John 4 seem a good way to start to me – and it only requires 10 words.
April 1, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Well said Bp Nick – the arrogance & implicit racism of ‘journalists’ making fun of those communicating in a tongue not their own is disapointing in the extreme.
April 1, 2011 at 7:25 pm
For me, paraphrasing Lancelot Andrewes, the best summation of the gospel has to be ‘He became as we are, so we might become as He is.’ 12 words,not bad….
April 2, 2011 at 4:18 pm
My best communication this week was at Auschwitz/Birkenau which was being visited by several parties of Israeli young people.
Most wore white tracksuit jackets with large blue stars of David, and many carried or wore flags round their shoulders – a bit like a Spurs away crowd. It might have seemed incongruous but as I said to my wife – “Here they can do what they dammed well please”
I was videoing the scene and panned from a fluttering flag to the remains of a Crematorium at Birkenau and back to a young flag bearer as he sat slightly distant from the group.
When he looked up, I felt the need to communicate something . I raised my hand in a mild Wolfie Smith “power to the people” gesture – and he smiled and gave a solid thumbs up in return. No word but we both knew what we were seeing was a kind of triumph.
These strong attractive young Jews were there reasserting that the darkness had not overcome them and I reflected that at the point where a confident Nazi had stood at the railhead and with a flick of the hand consigned thousands to supposed oblivion, it was he who was being judged ( judged himself) and he who has been left unlamented.
Beforehand I had remembered your reference to the anger of Psalm 88 and read that before a display of prayer shawls. Psalm 13 with its slightly more upbeat end was read at the execution cell of Maximilian Kolbe. That evening we went to a Jewish restaurant and listened to young musicians playing Klezmer music ( Jewish Cajun??!!). It seemed to represent the ability of Jews to make merry in a minor key, and without words (again) to draw meaning from the unimaginable.
April 2, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Well I wish my lecturers at Cranmer Hall would agree with Proverbs 10:19
- my dissertation requires 8000 words and I’m only halfway through..