by Sandra Miskie (aka "Grandma Geezer)
I am not a wordsmith.
I am not skillful at putting different contextual meanings to words at a quick pace. I have people around me who excel in this area. Janila comes to mind. She’s been a friend forever and will have me in gales of laughter at how she turns a phrase around. My children are good at that as well which is a skill I’m sure they got from their father. If all three are in a room at one time I better be careful because they will turn my words around to make me so embarrassed and most of time I’m totally in the dark as to why they are laughing which makes them laugh all the harder. Me… I speak my mind and try to make it clear so that misunderstandings don’t happen.
At times I fail miserably.
Have you ever been talking to someone and you thought things were going well and then all of a sudden they never call you again, walk off in a huff or confront you in fiery rage. YIKES! In those situations I ruminate forever on what I said that could have been taken the wrong way. To be perfectly frank I’m in favor of the fiery rage so at least you know what they are thinking. You can then make your apologies and if they are not taken then you can walk away with closure on the situation. Maybe time can heal the wound you unintentionally left with them. In the other cases you can’t make amends because you don’t know the context in which they interpreted what you said. Years later you might find out and you have lost so much time.
If you ever want to find out your ability level in word use try working a crossword puzzle.
(I’m still on the easy versions.) I only play or work on things I can accomplish and feel good about…at this moment in time that would fill the fingers on one hand but I’m working up to being better. In the latest puzzle I was trying to figure out what they wanted for Arabs. I kept focusing on the clans, tribes and country instead of horses. YEESH! Another word was opening and I focused on window, door and job instead of skin which would lead me to pore. Double YEESH! All this to say no wonder I can’t figure out why I unintentionally hurt people with words because it never occurs to me they would interpret what I said as cruel.
Last week I read a comment on an email from a friend.
I like Cheri because she’s always been one to tell it like it is but willing to listen to your point of view and agree to disagree. Her words never hurt and I’ve never misinterpreted what she said although others have. She chooses her words carefully, so this email I didn’t delete and was glad she wrote about Christmas trees, Christmas presents, Christmas parties and Christmas dinner. She wrote about respecting others rights to celebrate Hannukah and Kwanzaa and asked for others to respect her right to celebrate Christmasl. She boldly spoke about putting Christ first in Christmas and in her life. Her whole point was the use of the word Holiday instead of Christmas so as not to offend others.
Is it just me?
Or... are you realizing that words don’t have the same meaning they did even twenty years ago?There is a lot of power in words. So I have decided to be bold and give those of you who want to say Happy Holidays the right to do so…but please say it correctly!
Holiday is a derivative of "Holy Day"…
...So if you must ignore the time honored Holy Day of Christmas because it offends you or others please say it correctly. This is a wish for my readers… Merry Christmas, Happy "Holy Day" and a prosperous New Year with many blessings from the One true God our Father.
Remember… be careful of your words…they have unintentional repercussions at times.
Trust me on this!
Ever Truly Yours,
"G.G." Ph.D.
