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Threads for a Tapestry
- Fordham University Press
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164 165 the diverse strands woven into an emerging pattern. Art, it is said by some, imitates life, and each life is a tapestry of great complexity. Hopefully, the reader will be able to glimpse from these speeches - these threads - something of the wonder I find in the rich cloth of life. As the title suggests, I see my own tapestry as obviously unfinished; in fact its final design seems blessedly unclear. The same threads may be woven into many different patterns, and possibly the best result of this whole book might be that some readers will use these same fibers to help create their own unique tapestry. Threads for a Tapestry 1981 This collection of speeches is culled from several hundred addresses I delivered during an intense six year period of public service when I directed New York State’s health and human services departments. Conceived, written, and delivered in the heat of battle, they reflected the crises of the moment and were often geared to defend a particular policy or deflect an opposing argument. To accomplish this with philosophy, perspective, and a bit of poetry is the unique challenge that public speeches pose to a writer. These are not leisurely essays, polished for publication; neither are they technical talks, replete with charts and statistics. Such details are obviously essential on some occasions, but that approach has already been provided in my book Health in New York State and in numerous articles and reports. Rather, the speeches selected here are the spoken words of one who was privileged to fashion public policy and reflect my belief that the opportunity brought with it an obligation to articulate clearly the bases for difficult decisions. These talks offer an insight into my own approach to problems and demonstrate, I hope, some of the joy experienced while battling for a cause. They may also suggest that statements of public policy need not be framed in a bureaucratic patois which does violence to our language. All in all, I suppose the arrangement of the speeches here will not satisfy the reader who demands a strict Aristotelian sense of order - with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is more of a Joycean arrangement, with various speeches spun from different skeins but with 164 165 the diverse strands woven into an emerging pattern. Art, it is said by some, imitates life, and each life is a tapestry of great complexity. Hopefully, the reader will be able to glimpse from these speeches - these threads - something of the wonder I find in the rich cloth of life. As the title suggests, I see my own tapestry as obviously unfinished; in fact its final design seems blessedly unclear. The same threads may be woven into many different patterns, and possibly the best result of this whole book might be that some readers will use these same fibers to help create their own unique tapestry. Threads for a Tapestry 1981 This collection of speeches is culled from several hundred addresses I delivered during an intense six year period of public service when I directed New York State’s health and human services departments. Conceived, written, and delivered in the heat of battle, they reflected the crises of the moment and were often geared to defend a particular policy or deflect an opposing argument. To accomplish this with philosophy, perspective, and a bit of poetry is the unique challenge that public speeches pose to a writer. These are not leisurely essays, polished for publication; neither are they technical talks, replete with charts and statistics. Such details are obviously essential on some occasions, but that approach has already been provided in my book Health in New York State and in numerous articles and reports. Rather, the speeches selected here are the spoken words of one who was privileged to fashion public policy and reflect my belief that the opportunity brought with it an obligation to articulate clearly the bases for difficult decisions. These talks offer an insight into my own approach to problems and demonstrate, I hope, some of the joy experienced while battling for a cause. They may also suggest that statements of public policy need not be framed in a bureaucratic patois which does violence to our language. All in all, I suppose the arrangement of the speeches here will not satisfy the reader who demands a strict Aristotelian sense of order - with a beginning, a middle, and...