Resisting the Forces
A fellow "My Book Therapy" member recently started a discussion thread using a quotation from a magazine article appearing in "Christianity Today" ("Words that Nourish"): "The relationship between the living Word embodied in Christ and the rich gift of words that is ours to use and care for is a mystery worth much pondering. Surely amongst our most urgent and joyful responsibilities is to tell stories, to listen well, to resist the forces that flatten and inflate and beat language into alluring lies and to stay in conversation."
This quotation does reverberate with me, as I have been thinking a lot lately about the state of language and the written word in America. Linguistics seems to have taken quite a hit with the advent of text messaging, which has a language all it's own; familiar words and expressions are transformed into abbreviations and acronyms, driving a wedge between generations, and possibly a wooden stake through the heart of literacy. An English teacher recently interviewed by a radio station commented she does not allow "LOL" and other chat language expressions on term papers, yet she often sees such usage among students in formal narrative.
I am frequently disgusted and disappointed by the words and expressions high school students use in daily conversation. This coincides with the deterioration of dialogue in television screenplays, and the airing of such shows as "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom" where vulgarity is the verbal standard. My teenage daughter has repeatedly heard my lecture about how we are judged by the way we speak and how such word choices illustrate a "dumbing down" of humanity. Her usual response is nonchalant indifference toward this societal demotion.
As parents we learn our words can enable or strip esteem, and generally strive to communicate constructively, focusing on positive, concrete feedback. Recent radio "phone taps" of parents whose teens set them up for an on-air surprise, are sobering. This morning I listened as one mom screamed every negative expression/word in her playbook because her teen daughter led her to believe she was getting her long hair cut, without parental permission, into a pixie bob. It's a frightening glimpse into familial scenarios that play out on a daily basis with each breath we take.
Our culture needs a transfusion of words that nourish and elevate. Parents can make a point to use language in the home that strengthens and enriches the soul, countering contrary influences of kids' peers and media. Creative artists must stay in conversation with words of kindness and civility, writing stories and books that contrast and define struggles in terms of uplifting possibilities. If we listen well perhaps we can minimize the corrosive cultural environment. By ensuring prevailing influences are tempered with ethical moral underpinnings and a higher order of vocabulary, we might just shock the lexicon into a more elegant societal syntax.
This quotation does reverberate with me, as I have been thinking a lot lately about the state of language and the written word in America. Linguistics seems to have taken quite a hit with the advent of text messaging, which has a language all it's own; familiar words and expressions are transformed into abbreviations and acronyms, driving a wedge between generations, and possibly a wooden stake through the heart of literacy. An English teacher recently interviewed by a radio station commented she does not allow "LOL" and other chat language expressions on term papers, yet she often sees such usage among students in formal narrative.
I am frequently disgusted and disappointed by the words and expressions high school students use in daily conversation. This coincides with the deterioration of dialogue in television screenplays, and the airing of such shows as "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom" where vulgarity is the verbal standard. My teenage daughter has repeatedly heard my lecture about how we are judged by the way we speak and how such word choices illustrate a "dumbing down" of humanity. Her usual response is nonchalant indifference toward this societal demotion.
As parents we learn our words can enable or strip esteem, and generally strive to communicate constructively, focusing on positive, concrete feedback. Recent radio "phone taps" of parents whose teens set them up for an on-air surprise, are sobering. This morning I listened as one mom screamed every negative expression/word in her playbook because her teen daughter led her to believe she was getting her long hair cut, without parental permission, into a pixie bob. It's a frightening glimpse into familial scenarios that play out on a daily basis with each breath we take.
Our culture needs a transfusion of words that nourish and elevate. Parents can make a point to use language in the home that strengthens and enriches the soul, countering contrary influences of kids' peers and media. Creative artists must stay in conversation with words of kindness and civility, writing stories and books that contrast and define struggles in terms of uplifting possibilities. If we listen well perhaps we can minimize the corrosive cultural environment. By ensuring prevailing influences are tempered with ethical moral underpinnings and a higher order of vocabulary, we might just shock the lexicon into a more elegant societal syntax.
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