Process and Product in Public

There is an old Japanese proverb to the effect that no one should ever write a book before they are 50 years of age.  The point is that you just haven't experienced enough of life to write anything of value before then.

Typically, in times past, writers would study for a period of time, maybe many years before publishing their thoughts.  If someone wanted to write on something they would do a lot of reading and study, and a lot of notetaking.  They might change their views many times during the course of their study and maybe they would leave some reflection of their wrestlings in private journals and notebooks.  But basically, their internal wrestlings were hidden from the public.  Sure, when they published the book they might have given a synopsis of the process they went through in coming to their conclusions, but this was only a step to unveiling the final product.

In other words, there is a difference between process and product.  In times past the process was largely a private affair and the product was the public matter.  So, if Joe Author confessed in his writing that five years ago he held to position "x" but after further study he came to position "y" no one criticized him for believing position "x" way back then, because the finished product was now position "y."

So, going back to our old Japanese proverb, the wisdom in this was in acknowledging that, before the age of 50 people could and would be all over the map.  It's not so much that 50 is a sacred number, its just a rough guestimate as to how long it takes for people to become settled in their views.  The 20's, 30's and 40's are the periods of process where we are all over the map and unsettled.  In our 50's the process hasn't concluded, but it has come a lot closer to the intended destination, and thus we are in a position to start "producing" our "products."

Thus, when something was finally written, it was rightfully subject to all kinds of criticism. This was the finished product - this was where the individual "took their stand" so to speak and they needed to take whatever compliments and criticisms came their way.  It's kind of like taking a car from concept to showroom.  The process from concept to showroom is hidden until the car makes it to the showroom and on to the roads.  No one is bothered if some of the conceptual drawings weren't just right or if some faulty parts were used during design and testing, that's what design and testing are for.  But if the wheels fall off the car when it gets on the road, big problem.

So where am I going with this you ask?  In recent years alot of the "process" has started taking place in public whereas it used to take place in private.  This can be seen in publishing where younger and younger authors are writing more and more books and articles.   But it is even more evident in the blog world where anyone at any stage of the journey is able to publish their thoughts.
What we are getting in such situations are "thoughts in process," yet they are often offered and judged as if they were finished products.  This happens on the part of both the writer and reader.  One of the curses of youth is a supreme sense of self-confidence.  Younger people often don't realize that they are in process when they say some of the things they say.  They get a new idea and it sounds so good that they are sure this is "it" and they proclaim it dogmatically.  Yet, a few years will go by and they often change their views in particular areas or at least get a bigger picture and understand the nuances better. It's kind of like dating.  Think of some of the people you dated when you were younger and how you just knew that person was the one for you, yet now you look back at that person and go "ewww!" or at least you come to realize that weren't all they were cracked up to be.

On the other hand, there are plenty of younger folks who are writing books and blogging who admit that they are in process, yet their "process thoughts" which appear on blogs and in books are judged as if they were final "products." 

This is what I see going on in alot of writing and bloggng these days. Of course in this regard I will have to mention Brian McLaren and the emerging church, after all, no Christian blogger worth his salt should let a week go by without mentioning him or them.  McLaren and our emerging friends are on a journey, they are in process - that is why they refer to what they are doing as a "conversation."  It is no secret to past readers of my blog that I am pretty uncomfortable with alot of what I see coming out of EC and McLaren.  Yet, I think it is incumbent on me and those like me to exercise some charity toward them and acknowledge that they are in process. 

But I also think it is incumbent on them to recognize that they are in process and to be reticent to call for wholesale changes in the way we do church and the Christian faith.  I realize that nobody in the EC movement asked me for advice or particularly cares what I think, but I think that a lot of the calls for change have come a little too early in the process.  I'm happy for the way that Brian and the EC folks are wrestling with what it means to be a Christian in a postmodern world, but I think they need to keep reminding themselves and their readers and hearers that they are in fact, still in process.  And if I may throw one more personal view in there, I still think C. S. Lewis's advice is best - be open to the new, but keep a bias in favor of the old and proven.

Similarly, blogging has enabled many of us who are in process to go public with our processes.  This is a good and bad thing.  It is good in that it opens the doors for others to "sharpen" us in the midst of our process.  It opens us up to a world of influences.  Whereas, in times past, our only counselors may have been our private thoughts, a library, and a few colleagues, blogging offers us the chance to receive counsel from a world of people we would never have known before.

But it can be bad in that it lets the public in to what was, in times past, a very private domain.  If you blog your private thoughts and the things you are going through in your process then you open up your private life to whoever has a computer, and there are folks out there whom you wouldn't have invited into your private sphere. 

So, if you want to keep your process private, may I suggest that blogging probably isn't for you (remember the joke - if at first you don't succeed, maybe skydiving isn't for you).  There is nothing wrong with keeping your process private.  There are lots of things I wrestle with that never make it on to the blog, they stay private.  If you want to keep things private then get a journal or just keep your thoughts on your own computer.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But, if you are going to go public with your process, then you have to have a thick skin and be prepared for a public response.  People are going to treat your thoughts as "products" and respond accordingly and the responses won't always be favorable to you (In all fairness, most respondees, even those who disagree, are pretty gracious, but we all know there are pretty of grumpsters out there).

Getting back to where I started, I think there is some wisdom in the old Japanese proverb that you shouldn't write a book (or publish your thoughts?) till you are fifty.  But that's not going to happen.  It's a train that has left the station and it ain't comin' back.  Our task now is to adapt to a world where everyone's process can be made pubic, both on the internet and in books and magazines.  We're living in a world full of unfinished thoughts, incomplete paragraphs, and fragmentary setences.  The owners of these unfinished, incomplete fragments need to be very circumspect about publishing them.  If you publish your process it will be criticized, so be prepared.  And similarly, if you are reading someone's process, cut them the appropriate amount of slack. If they portray there process as a finished product then you have every right to jump and scream if the wheels are falling off.  But if they acknowledge that they are publishing their process, then interact with them conversationally and helpfully, rather than blasting them.

And finally, maybe we all ought not to take ourselves so dang seriously.  The old Japanese proverb was a kindly way of reminding us that we really aren't all that smart.  You've got to have a lot of life behind you before you really know what is going on.  So, as Bene says, blog on, and write on, but don't take yourself so seriously - if you are under 50 you'll probably change your mind about alot of things in the coming years.