September 9, 2008, 11:23 pm by Ian

he concept of kairos is definitely unattainable and intangible. I mean, how can you teach someone to step into the moment of rhetorical beauty? You can’t. But what you can probably teach—or at least make any rhetor aware of— is the ability to be watchful of these fleeting kairotic moments.

Though I understand how kairotic moments are different from place to place and time to time, I think that these moments are not entirely but rather can evolve through time. Say you accidently sideswiped your wife’s favorite ox, do you bring up the situation immediately, which could give you credit for coming out clean and honest early, or do you put it off later until an even more horrible moment comes up and you slip in your decidedly less horrible thing just to pad the horrible extra because, you know, it would hurt much less? The kairos of the situation is predictably and understandably different from the first moment to the second, but knowing the two moments could help you decide which kairos is better suited to your rhetorical skills.

As these kairotic moments morph and evolve, an observant rhetor should be able to know which moment he or she can take and take well. Since no one can truly predict a great moment to stand on the soap box he or she may happen to carry with them, rhetors should be able to see their kairotic strength and go into it with a mix of haphazard planning and winging it (did everyone else make that connection between kairos and ‘winging it’ or am I just grasping at straws?).

Usually, I see and step into my moment of kairos when a friend comes to me crying or distraught. I give great advice and great explanations and words of comfort for such and such to a devastated friend, but if that same friend is just merely muddled but generally okay with life, I give crap-for-beans worthless advice. In part, I think it may have to do with that moment where someone so hopelessly lost and grieving, I can truly see how my words will have a greater impact, whereas someone is just slightly worried about a girl or a family member, I just can’t gather the words to step into that moment of advice-giving.