For the depths of the human experience, language often falls well short of expressing our essence. Don’t believe me? Describe the first time you fell in love and make me feel it just like you did. Uh huh, that’s what I thought.
Nevertheless, the power of our own words to dictate our thoughts is still more significant than we may like to give credit to. When we are careless with the materials of our thought, the architecture of our thinking tends to be built up a little crooked.
Airport lounges are great places to ponder such mysteries of the human process. I recently had some time to kill in Denver, so I spent my layover in the company of a good friend and a bad Bloody Mary. Over the course of the conversation he told me about an exercise in which he removes certain words from his day to day lexicon, forcing his brain to reroute his train of thought down a different side track.
Interesting. Growth through handicap.
Thus, in the interest of growth, I have eliminated the word “why” this week. Odd choice? Perhaps, as ”why” is good for so many positive things. However, it is also the root of significant thought-process-decaying evil. “Why do I have to do this?” “Why didn’t that happen?” And so on and so forth. You get the picture. Today I am instead being forced to think along the lines of, “I am the one doing this, how can Iget it done more efficiently?” “That didn’t happen so what can I do to readjust my strategy?” See the trend? This rerouted line of thinking also forces me to pause before the first thing to enter my brain comes flinging out of my face. I have to stop and actually consider what I’m doing and saying. Novel concept, I know.
So, challenge for the day: pick a word, and GET RID OF IT. Leave me a comment if you like, tell me the word you chose, and then leave another comment describing how the experiment went. We can discuss the results over Bloody Marys.
I’ll play.
My word is “flaccid.” I love using it several times a day, in a non-sexual context, to shock the socks off people.
It’s become a shock crutch, though, and is dangerously close to being relegated to the “schtick file.”
I’m considering trying to live without the word “clearly” for a week.
Think I can do it…?
David: “clearly” is oft the bane of my lexicon as well. That one may have to go next week.
As for you? I have all the faith in the world that you can eliminate it. However, could you do without “fluffy??”
Oh heavens no…because I can’t give up the word “pigeon” and “fluffy” is part-n-parcel of “pigeon.”
You understand.
OK I’ll play…LOVE