This is a long tale about the question of what we pay attention to, how we speak, what we say, is it just subjective =/ what ev i tink-<-- do we really do that?
Its almost Christmas! Hustle and bustle of shoppers at the stores, everywhere there is lights and decorations, we get out the music we've waited all year for, and the television shows transform with tales of joy and laughter and hope, along with advertising that is almost convincing! Wow, I can forget so many important things, focusing on my Christmas--Holiday; I need to say a few times a day, Jesus is the reason for the season, and this year I have taken on an actual Charity event! I know!, not just hide behind my Church event, but get behind the event I love the most, even if I feel like its not saving the planet from what ever is in fashion, it's great to do something like this!
Working hard at anything, is the best distraction from dark shadows that can envelope us. Those same shadows, darken the bright future of our brilliant country, the United States of America. For example, I like to listen to NPR, this afternoon while waiting for my kids, Neil Conan discussed how people tend to believe only the extremist stories about religion, and a Mormon woman said that she felt the sting of prejudice when so many were sure she belonged to a polygamist group when actually- it could not be further from the truth. Christmas is full of fake realities about religion, and so much of it is sold to us! But why blame society, we buy it, I forget that Church is now trademarked with scandal ...even if we dont admit it, because those who love it, and attend will negotiate the stigma for the reality, we know better, it is called faith. But even that sounds trite...and I do apologize if you read into that, but a wealthy man would not apologize for his Mercedes, so I should actually show my faith with the similar openness.
I recently gave up my feud with the television, bought a digital antenna, and now I get my fair share of network news, in high definition and stereo, just in time to catch the Tiger tales, and well, it's not like that story is any better in HD. So I face-book with a select group of friends, and family and one second after I log in, I only miss them more!! And now I spent more time genuinely wondering what they actually get from my short updates on my life, and now I don't bother to send them emails, or the long lost letter. And a few people, just hear too much from me, and probably are too nice to say anything, but I don't know who they are, so I just pray that they dont -"unfriend" me, which by the way, is the new word for Webster's Dictionary this year. If you like useless knowledge that is a doosey!
I found solitude on face-book, and went on to, twitter, where I can mindlessly read the twitteriffic tweets of people I will never ever meet or know, or that know me. I find it funny that the same people who really would never want you to see them in tabloids or take their photo, will leave notes for the whole world to see, and allow others to directly send them-teeny emails...I get information, from the opinions, and of course its completely subjective, and should not be taken seriously, yes of course. One thing, I do find it really odd that serious writers for news shows are complaining that news could not possibly be coming out of the short sweet tweets, because they want to be the source with long articles and unnamed sources. All the while, they are still reporting stories about these famous people, and because of that the anchors and stations, tweet, and the news is actually faster now that everyone with a cell phone has this capability. We are continuously being told, we can't know anything on our own, we need others, and we wonder why our children are all rushing into college and the state of the economy is falling apart. We negotiate the emails, the facebooks, and the phones and the blackberries, for the sole purpose of staying close, while I am sure that I talk less to the people that I would normally remember to pick up the home phone, and dial out to.
We can think for ourselves, but even that has its stigmas, many that don't conform, are largely collected into groups that conservatives believe are ruining others lives. If you let someone ruin your life, is it someone elses fault? Being against a political party, or a politician, can bring all of us to a good discussion, but putting that person in charge of your life, and aggressively blaming the opposition for what might seem like a wrench in the system, is just another way to stand in shadow, and hide from the light of opportunity to see, a little competition is healthy for all of us. So where am I going with this, why do I need to point out, the distractions of Christmas, and the stigma of the ways we communicate, in public, and in print? I am in dire need to post the thoughts that have given me a headache for the past two weeks... and just so you all know, I listened-- I tried, and I negotiated my best, but I was truly lost in translation.
I think that the spoken word, is a powerful way to communicate, and highly negotiable. You can really get the full impact of the person and the story when you get it in person, you can ask questions, and you can respond with your own personal views. People who travel can use hand signs, and motions and pointing, but we find ways to make our thoughts known. And the best part is, we don't have to type, tweet, or check our spelling! People can hear our grammar they can tell our brain power by our choice of words, and possibly even get an idea of our heritage, by our accent. We can recognize many accents here in America, people who speak with a southern drawl, with a New York hip, or Western red neck, these voices can evoke charm, just as definitive as the Queens English, or the French sophisticate, often we enjoy the sound of the accent. I for one, absolutely love, the Australian tone of voice, the speech that has this smile built in, for the majority of the well spoken adults. I am going to go out on a limb here, and not stigmatize, but take the position that if the accent is so strong that I can't negotiate a conversation, I will often, secretly-resolve, not to try to talk to the person, and just smile and say, uh huh, and hope they do the same.
But today, someone said to me, with a heavy Latin accent, no one in America speaks English!! And I was astounded at his revelation of all Americans, and he continued to respond to my correction of his advertisement- printed with many oddities in grammar, spelling, text but also the word lent on it. I said, lent what is lent? In the sentence it was clearly not, the Christian season before Easter, and I said, what is this word? He said, lent! and went on to proclaim, that we all said it. In his own way, it was clear that he wanted to get by, as much as I find this resourcefulness fun, it is vital in print that we use properly spelled words, esspecially in advertising, its NOT negotiable. The printed word needs to represent, what we mean the most, and lent is the way he heard, Length, only if he had ever heard it said phonetically, or read it , he would have known, but unfortunately for him, this was just another reason for anger, and it was as if he stigmatized himself, I will always relate lent to length now, hes changed my definition in my head. Slang does this, it takes words and re negotiates their meaning, and often we can sound very old, or very un-cool, by using slang that is from a particular era. Slang is not what I think of as proper English, and usually is not the standard for publishing in print or for media. Does the Bible have slang in it?
I understand that many of us are frustrated with the world and the way it is, and how we cannot not control it. The generation gap widens each time, words are changed and used in order to separate the young from the old. I know I should have patience with anyone who wants to discuss events and have opinions, no matter what their rhetoric might be, but there is a fine line between optimal accents that allow someone to know your background, and being intolerant of the language that you communicate with. Being good or bad with it, it is your words that people hear first, and no matter who you are, or how well dressed you are, your education will show in the words you choose. It is said that when you put junk in you can only get junk out, meaning - junk food will, only produce a person with a personality of a twinkie. This is true of junk-media, music, and books, you can not possibly expect to speak better or command the English language without the study of all genres, and not excluding the classics as a base.
In this United States, we have forgotten the question of what language do we speak, is it English? Webster's Dictionary has a new video that automatically opens and plays when you use the web site. And it proclaims that our language is a mongrel of a language. What an image that is, and coming from our book of definitions, I almost find that thought detrimental to my ability to see myself with any culture what so ever.
It was Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect of the 20th century, who said, it is us who designs our own life, we make our buildings we make our cities and towns, we make the blueprints, for our beautiful lives. We do.
And I have a DVD that Santana says, that our voice is our instrument, that we play for others, and we can choose to use it for peace or for hate. When you sing your Christmas carols, when you say Merry Christmas, when you say thank you, you are not in a dress rehearsal for something else. Our words are our gifts of our talents, and each time we praise someone it is as generous as the wrapped surprise under the tree. Take note of something nice, or beautiful , or worthy of a meaningful moment, to say, I really like that about you, it changes our focus from inward, to positive and outward, if we look for the complements!
this is my new years resolve , to teach with carefully chosen words, from this day forward. To learn a new word a week, realistically! And to make sure that I allow fair-trade negotiations of people's words, especially for friends and family. No more taxing arguments ! :)
Merry Christmas!!
All the best in this season of hope!
May you carry it with you all year-
Peace
LIZ
