{"id":2797,"date":"2014-09-25T12:17:56","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T16:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/?p=2797"},"modified":"2014-09-25T12:24:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T16:24:26","slug":"to-send-or-to-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/to-send-or-to-trash.php","title":{"rendered":"To send or to trash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My local post office in DC offers a rather helpful decision point that I only just noticed today. Below the slot where you place your mail is a convenient receptacle for trash. I&#8217;m fairly confident they didn&#8217;t design this as a cognitive prompt. But I&#8217;m going to take it as one, anyway.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/mail_trash.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2798\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/mail_trash.jpg\" alt=\"Send it or trash it?\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/mail_trash.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/mail_trash-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Every moment we say something, mail something, or send something by email or social or other media, has a moment just before it where we make this choice: <em>Send it, trash it, or pause to recraft it to make it worthy to send?<\/em> It struck me this morning how often I squander that &#8220;moment just before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The folk wisdom about that moment is captured in this pithy sentence:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That quote is commonly attributed to the Buddha, although the helpful researcher at Fake Buddha Quotes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fakebuddhaquotes.com\/if-you-propose-to-speak-always-ask-yourself-is-it-true-is-it-necessary-is-it-kind\/\">suggests otherwise<\/a>. The Buddha offered five indicators of &#8220;right speech&#8221; in a similar vein:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of goodwill.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m no Buddhist, but I&#8217;m gleeful about co-opting smart people from the past. So, I&#8217;m adapting both checklists to create one of my own:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Is it true? Is it useful? Is it kind? Is it necessary?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/postit_checklist.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/postit_checklist.jpg\" alt=\"Checklist\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/postit_checklist.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/postit_checklist-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>I probably can&#8217;t ask the U.S. Post Office to display this checklist next to their &#8220;send or trash&#8221; decision station. But I can certainly place it on a post-it note on my computer screen, and ask myself (truthfully, usefully, and kindly, of course) whether the thing I&#8217;m about to send or say is worth the sending.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My local post office in DC offers a rather helpful decision point that I only just noticed today. Below the slot where you place your mail is a convenient receptacle for trash. I&#8217;m fairly confident they didn&#8217;t design this as a cognitive prompt. But I&#8217;m going to take it as one, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2797"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2804,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797\/revisions\/2804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}