But I digress

This little phrase speaks a thousand words. You come across it so often; or variations of it:

" ... but I'm getting ahead of myself ..."

" ... but back to my point ..."

" ... but that is another conversation ..."

" ... but suffice it to say this ..."

For those of us who write (or fancy that we do), BUT I DIGRESS and its variations is a fascinating conundrum of the writing craft.

I often tell my students that anything I've published (well, peer reviewed stuff; not this blog) has usually been re-written up to 25 times. And gurus of good writing tell us this is typical.

So, for "but I digress" to have made 25 edits and still appear in print says something. In fact it says many things. One of the things it says is this:

You are not digressing. You're saying it exactly the way you want to say it.

The idea for this post came while writing yesterday's post, in which can be found this variation of "but I digress":

" ... but this is not where I want to go with this confession ..."

I thought long and hard -- not 25 times, but long and hard -- about deleting the entire section requiring this caveat. If it is not where I want to go, then why go there?

Why? Because in the final obsession, it was worth going there. Something about going there made the main point, well, more the main point: interpreting grades in a culture that has compromised on measurable standards is much harder to do ... if it has any meaning at all.

Here is another thing "but I digress" says:

It says that life in all of its beauty is not linear. It is symphonic, with so many, many moving parts. And those parts all fit together in ways that are far beyond what a linear sentence can capture.

So good writing is about crafting good linear lines of thought ... to describe a fullness not capture-able by lines.

I think this is why we have music.

But I digress.

Logos2Go

Isaiah 28.13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

2 Corinthians 12.13-14 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows); How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Many psalms begin like this: Psalm 5.1 For the director of music. For flutes. A psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing.