Here is a list of rules formulated decades ago by the legendary social psychologist and game theorist Anatol Rapoport, as abridged by the philosopher, Daniel Dennett:

“How to compose a successful critical commentary”

* 1. You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”

* 2. You should list any points of agreement, especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement.

* 3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.

* 4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

Lochiel:
Time-worn wooden buildings
On either side of a rusty wire fence.
Green-gold grass encircles
The houses and the trees,
Surrounds the scrubby mesquites
And sweeps up the distance
Into the brooding mountains
That paint the clouds
That shadow them.

Lochiel:
Flown over, cul-de-sac-ed,
Unbroken by breaking news,
Indifferent to the headlines:
A hollow dot on the road atlas,
A cluster of squares on the topo map,
Divided by a dotted line
Suggesting infinity
Beyond east and west.

Lochiel:
Twenty-four bone-jangling miles
Down a road of powdered dirt
From the nearest paved town,
Past cactus and juniper scrub
And trucks from the Border Patrol:
From the north,
The gateway to nowhere;
A dustination on the way
From lonesome to forlorn.
From the south, the vast front yard
Of hoped-for home.

Lochiel:
Where America and Mexico
Dead-end in windswept solitude,
In a dreamscape of longing.
Tuned for lament, the fence,
An enormous guitar,
Vibrates to a cancion
Inaudibly deep with yearning
For the crossing of love.

About the Author Jim Burklo

Website: MINDFULCHRISTIANITY.ORG Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
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Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California