Does Opinion Have a Point?

And then there is opinion as a form of expression, as a ‘thinking out loud.’ This is the approach that I prefer and which drives many of the pieces on this Substack. The ideas for these sorts of pieces tend to start out as a tickle — just some slight annoyance about the world as it is, some glancing observation about one’s own journey that may be of interest to others. Nicholson Baker says that a thought is about three feet tall, and that seems like the right proportion for an op-ed — an impish, intriguing idea that you want to share with other people. David Brooks, who really is a master of writing this way, claims (following a Christian parable) that a writer is a beggar telling another beggar where they found bread: something occurs to you that has been quietly helpful in understanding your own life or the world around you and you offer it up to readers, not as a call to action, not as a clinching argument, or even as advice, but simply sharing something of where you have gotten to on your journey for others who may be on parallel trajectories.