Wordsmithing [Reflections]

It seems to the author that wordsmithing is the natural ground state of a committee preparing a report - the state that the committee always falls back into when external stimuli are removed. At a recent study, he commented at one point in the deliberations that they had spent more time on wordsmithing than they had on considering the substance of the report. Everyone looked at him blankly for a moment, and then resumed the wordsmithing. He got into it, too. Doing wordsmithing really made him feel like he was accomplishing something. By coincidence, there was a management meeting of the company´s executives the next week. The chairman asked how many of the attendees knew the corporate mission statement. Our author avoided his eyes, because he had no clue. Neither, apparently, did anyone else. The angry chairman pointed out that the mission statement was prominently displayed in the lobby of the building, and everyone there passed by it every day. So many words. So little meaning.