Me: [after searching fruitlessly through Lowe’s and several minutes in Home Depot] (mutters) dad-gumit.
Isaac: Can you say that?
Me: Well, I’m a little frustrated. It’s not good to say all the time. Your tone is very important.
Isaac: Can you say mom-gumit?
A Latin phrase meaning, “it is solved by walking.”
I was recently talking with my bride about solving a problem while walking to watch a basketball game. I had been working at it for a few hours, but no easy solution had materialized. I wasn’t a few minutes from the door, however, when the answer came to me. It was a little frustrating because it was an easy solution, but one that did not appear until I took a walk.
Has this ever happened to you? A challenge or an answer coming while you’re not thinking about it? There’s something powerful about our created minds and their ability to process information without having it at the forefront.
Resolved:
My brother-in-law’s annual hey-here’s-newish-music-you-probably-haven’t-heard-since-you-have-kids CD contains the excellent (and previously unknown to me) Avett Brothers song I And Love And You. The song prominently repeats the lament/regret/lyric:
Three words that became hard to say
I and Love and You
After hearing it a few times, George interrupted and said “Those aren’t hard words!” While he was right, the disconnect was funny enough that I had to pull over for a few seconds before I could safely resume driving home.
Yes, George, the words themselves aren’t difficult. But as you’ll learn, words have meaning only in context and in relationship with each other. For this reason, ‘I Love You’ — usually a defining a nervous landmark in a romantic relationship — can be much harder to say than ‘I love Rhododendrons.’
There will probably be many words that you find difficult to say as life goes on. Here’s a few that have tripped me up from time to time (with varying degrees of difficulty and seriousness):
Words like these are hard to say because they reveal a truth or a desire. Saying them makes it real. Don’t be afraid of the real; those afraid of the real never really live.*
As long as words are tactful (an important caveat), then they probably should be said, even if difficult. And the more you say such things, the easier they become.
* We’ll stop here before this sounds much more like Kierkegaardian existentialism (speaking of difficult words!)
Not because I like cursing, but because the speaker realizes he’s being offensive; just like French :-)
A thoughtful reminder that behind the anonymity of email/web there are real people who deserve to be treated as such.
Is it ok to say someone is making a molehill out of mountain? If so, is it a good thing (diffusing) or bad (blindness)?
or at least more coffee. First clue? Spelling figure as I did above in an email and staring at it for 15 seconds to try to remember how it’s wrong.
is really just another way of saying “I don’t approve of how you’re spending your free time.”
We would probably do better to say “I think your hobby sucks” or “I think you’re a boring person” or “Your interests are clearly inferior to mine”
Or we would probably do better to find a better way to spend our own time.
I hate really really dislike it when people say “anyways.” What does it mean? It means I had a point, but I deviated from the point, and rather than try to tie the loose ends (or the tangent) together, I’m going to get back to what I was saying. No one says “anyways” unless they realize they are rambing or aren’t making a point. If you realize this, you can do something about it. Possible solutions include:
I did a quick search on Google and fortuately I am not alone in my dislike of this word. Ben Wise notes:
As ugly and juvenile as it sounds to these ears, which had almost never heard the construction until, perhaps, a decade or two ago, anyways now seems to have taken hold as common usage among the current generation of youth and young adults, at least where I live (New England). My guess is that it is a “juvenilism,” like, you know, retained into later years by today’s subliterate culture.
And Brian says:
“Anyways” at the beginning of a sentence usually indicates that the speaker has resumed a narrative thread.
Brian goes on to indicate “anyways” is incorrect and shouldn’t be used.
Is this picky? Sure. Do I say “anyways” sometimes? Not intentionally. Am I always cohesive and to the point? No (after all, I am a preacher). Am I only interested in succinct (=factual?) converstaion because I am a male? Maybe. Will this change the way you talk? Probably not.
BTW, “anyhow” ought also be dropped from use for similar reasons.
And don’t get me started on “anywho”…
