YOU CALLED ME A WHAT?

Racist, Bigot, Misogynist, Moron, Fool, Deplorable, Crazy, Hateful, Asshat, POS, Evil, Sicko, Bonehead and various body parts.

 Anybody who has dabbled in politics on Facebook, email, or at a family gathering has seen these words or had them thrown their way. They are the ammunition in the war between those with different political philosophy who are little shy of facts. It's hard to be called a less than complimentary name and let it roll like water off of an elephant or donkey's back, so maybe it's a good idea to probe the impact of "words."

 The first time I became aware of the awesome power of words was a few years ago when a new local radio talk show host used the term, "wetback." I knew what he was attempting to describe, I got it. It meant nothing to me but it meant the end of a promising radio career for our local talk show host.

Mr. Talk Show's repeated use of the word on the air to make a point, made a point. The point he made was if you say "wetback" on the air in New Mexico, you're fired. Whatever happened to "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never harm me?"

  This event got me thinking, why do some words bother us and others do not? Some Mexican-American listeners were bothered not at all by the "w" word and others were aggravated to the point of picketing the radio station. It can't be the word itself; it must be what that word (or any word) means to each individual who hears it.

  So if we are in charge of what words mean to us, can't we choose not to be hurt by them?

 Maybe words bother us most when we give them some validity. If we enjoy writing and if someone were to comment on our writing by saying that we, "ramble on without obvious direction," we might be bothered at some level if we felt that might be true. But if the next person commented that the reason you write as you do is that your head is blue, being called a "bluehead" wouldn't bother you at all because you know you are not one of the rare and colorful Bluehead clan.

  It's not only the words we hear, but who says them. I was a professional speaker for many years. If upon leaving a program, a domicilly challenged person, sucking Ripple wine out of a bottle wrapped in a brown paper sack told me he heard my talk while rummaging through a dumpster in the alley outside of my meeting room, and I "stunk" even more than the dumpster, I guess I wouldn't much care. But, if the "stunk" word was laid on me by one of my peers in the National Speakers' Association, I would have exhibited a distinctly different reaction to the same words.

  Words by themselves mean nothing. We give words all the meaning they have for us.

 Today, everywhere we look in the world something icky is going on. This is the time for intelligent discussion of solutions, but the world's issues are so complicated, and since most of us don't really understand them nor do we have any practical or workable solutions, the only thing we seem to be sure of is the "other side" is wrong. When a person can't put their position forward or contradict other's position with facts, all that's left is name calling. "Yea! Well, you're a poop head!"

 Maybe the power of words for good and bad in our life depends on our sense of self-esteem? The more confident we are about ourselves, the tougher it is to find a word to hurt us. It may be hard for us to accept and implement this truth but maybe if we are offended by being called Racist, Bigot, Misogynist, Moron, Fool, Deplorable, Crazy, Hateful, Asshat, POS, Evil, Sicko, Bonehead and various body parts, maybe it says more about us than it does about the words.

 "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never harm me." (Unless I let them.) 

LEARNER, LEARNER YOUR FUTURE'S ON FIRE

Peanuts cartoon:

 The character, Rerun, was hiding under a bed. Lucy asked if he's coming to school. Rerun said "no" because, he exclaimed, the teacher was sarcastic to him. The teacher had asked him if he thought he had "learned everything he needed to know." Lucy, being Lucy, queried "Well, do you think you've learned everything you need to know?" Rerun replied, "I think I've learned everything I need to know to live under a bed."

Rerun's philosophy, at this stage of his young life, appears to be, "If I'm going to live under a bed for the rest of my life, what is the sense of learning anything more? Logical, but somewhat flawed, thinking.

          Maybe today all he needs to learn is what's necessary to live "under a bed," but tomorrow he may find himself "under a dresser." Does he know how to live under a dresser, or does he only have "under the bed" skills?

 I remember many years ago attending a then live concert by the now dead Jim Croce.

 He was a gifted songwriter, minstrel, and between-songs philosopher. That evening he spoke of his college experiences and said, "During four years of college I took philosophy, psychology, sociology, all of these "ologies," and I came out totally prepared for life in the 12th century."

 If we don't learn how to learn, we will be, just as surely as the terminally inconvenienced Mr. Croce or the dust bunny covered Rerun, preparing for life under a bed in the 12th century. We will find ourselves able to function quite well in a world that has ceased to exist.

 For those who use statistics to generate personal excitement, try these: 95 percent of what we use daily is learned after we leave school. Every five years 50 percent of what we know becomes obsolete. Doesn't say much for stagnant learning does it?

 If you don't buy those statistics, and believe you have all the education you'll ever need with your high school, college or college plus degrees, try this little exercise. Dredge up the report card from your last year of formal education. See if you even remember taking a particular course, much less what was taught in that class. How would you do if you took a test today on the material you were exposed to in your last year of school?

 With the high obsolescence rate of our knowledge we obviously can't rely on "used learning." Therefore continuous learning is critical at all stages of life. But of the gabillion things there are to learn, what specifically do YOU need to learn? Selective learning is no easy task considering we have very little idea of what we should select to learn.

 No matter how well we have planned our life, our life has a life of its own and that life is full of surprises of all sizes. What do we need to learn when our spouse runs off with the circus? Didn't plan on that I bet. How about a job loss; quadruplets; lottery winning; hemorrhoids; aging?

 Learn something every day; we're never sure what we'll need to know or when we'll need to know it. It is one heck of a challenge to prepare for a life that has never been lived before.