Outside my office at UW, I’ve affixed an orange plastic envelope to the window, with a label reading: “Free Provocative Ideas.” Every time I’m in my office, I stuff it full of essays, poems, and other printable musings I come across on my daily hyperspace jaunt.

I suppose I could save paper, and just email the links around to people who I think would be interested in what I’ve come across. But people (especially students) have enough to read these days (whether they read enough is another issue), and I think those emails would more or less just be ignored.

I think the envelope works better, because it allows the potential reader to take the initiative — instead of receiving didactic “you oughta read this” emails from me, it allows her to take or leave the essay. It’s less “in your face,” I guess. Plus, there’s far more pleasure in holding what you’re reading, as opposed to squinting your way through the computer’s flickering refresh rate.

The things I stick in envelope always disappear, and I’m probably going to go through a lot of ink trying to keep up. A few good conversations have been birthed by the essays, too, and I’m hoping there’ll be more. The folks I share the office with tell me that people stop by from time to time, asking for more.

One of the mainstays of the “Provocative Ideas” envelope are the “Ten Propositions” of Kim Fabricius. Fabricius is a campus minister in Swansea, England, and from time to time composes these propositions, usually numbered 10, about theological matters. They’re published over at the fantastic “Faith and Theology” blog.

I imagine that most people who read this aren’t often on the UW campus, so I’d encourage you to check out these lively and splendid little homilies on the web. If you do happen to come by my office some day, I’d be happy to chat more about them. Coffee is always on me.