Truth in packaging.
These columns usually have working titles well before they actually become fleshed out. Sometimes I grow so attached to these titles that I find it hard to choose a new one when, upon completing the column, I realize that I've actually written about something different than originally intended. I suppose that my feeling that I have to choose a new title stems from some well ingrained training from long ago that told me that titles should reflect content. As associative as I may be, I find it hard to break free of that early training. I still do, after all, come from a middle-class background.
My guess is, however, that readers are used to this. If they're of the sort who yell outloud at a written page "get to the point already", they probably don't continue reading these columns. The point, after all, is not some pearl of enlightenment that can be encapsulated into one precise sentence, but a field of ideas flowing back and forth, sometimes imposing on each other and blocking the view, sometimes standing out a bit more distinctly. And who's interested in actually getting to it? It's the scenery and stops along the way that are the most fun, even the real point.
Go to: My greatest fear.