My wife and I came back from a great hour-long walk in Shoreline Park in Mountain View, California, and saw the truck. It had hand-painted lettering on it: IdeaFarm.com. and a few other things.
There was a sunshield, the kind with reflective foil, unfurled behind the windshield. The whole get-up looked like the rolling home of a wandering prophet, or someone who thinks of themselves that way.
He was sitting behind the truck, in the shade of a raised panel, on an old aluminum-and-plastic-mesh beach chair. He looked weather-worn, late forties. The American-flag suspenders holding up his shorts were soiled almost black, but his clothes were cleaner.
His auburn hair and beard were reasonably groomed. His smile was warm.
So we stopped and greeted him. “What’s the IdeaFarm?” was the thrust of our inquiry.
The man–his name is Wo’O Ideafarm, having been changed in 1999 from whatever it was before, answered us happily and clearly. His answer was not totally satisfying, as you’ll learn if you visit IdeaFarm.com; it’s positive, humanistic, and optimistic, however.
I won’t go into his message here; you can get from the site about all I managed to get from him beside his truck. I want to make a point about his methods.
Wo’O was a distinguished student of economics–ABD, University of Chicago; many honors–when he realized that he needed to communicate his uplifting idea to all. He’s been driving around for years doing just that.
Currently, he has–and I hope he’ll forgive me if I’m misremembering some details–a six-week course of messages, delivered in five-message blocks, one each day of the work week. Stuff short enough to read, especially if you stop at the light on the corner of Castro and El Camino Real, where he’s perched in recent weeks. The one he showed us: “Be an immigrant, not a colonist.”
He sees himself as a seed-planter. Without going to the New Testament metaphor, you can see the point: Some will “get it,” and carry it forward.
This long preamble was to point out an important lesson: Short sentences, even slogans, can take root in people and change the way they think. Not sure how successful Wo’O has been, but there’s something powerful in the approach.
So what’s the takeaway for the aspiring writer? Simply this: Words are a way into people’s minds and hearts. Carefully chosen, they can have the impact you want them to have. You needn’t use a lot of them; a few, properly delivered, will do.
So what do you think about this? Write to me: joel@joeltrainsauthors.com.
>> Short sentences, even slogans, can take root in people and change the way they think.
Tell your students this 100 times. The “street essay” method of civic speech that I have developed is so effective that the City of Mountain View and the County of Santa Clara have together spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to keep me entangled at court and silenced on the streets.
Your blog page came up just now for the first time as I searched Google; Google has added a “personal” function, and the link to your blog was right at the top of the page. I remember your face; perhaps we’ve seen each other more than once on the streets in Mountain View. Ideas are the most powerful force shaping the course of human culture; they are far more powerful than weapons. But weapons can be used to silence ideas. And they are. Every day. Freedom to speak in the United States only exists until you try to use it. I have been silent for 13 months now. This is not voluntary. Your freedom is an illusion.
Been wondering where you’ve been, Wo’O. Sorry to hear that your absence was coerced.