LANGUAGE

English, the language, has more words than any other modern language. So we should be able to find some good ones without laboring a thought or confusing the audience. Communication seems so simple but it’s not. It’s full of traps and dead ends. Having a good (big) vocabulary helps but then you have more choices and you have to think, a task in itself. Simple reflections and regurgitations flow without thinking, the mind puts the right words in your mouth and out they come,”Can I borrow a dollar?” or “I like your shoes.” But if you are making an argument for or against something or explaining a process where A leads to B, and B to C; then you have to think a little bit about the words and how they come out. I don’t think I'm obsessed with language, that’s too strong a word (there you go. . .) but I think about my words before I open my mouth. I’m notorious for stopping mid sentence, an untimely pause and people try to help, finishing my thought with words I have already rejected. I trust the mind to come up with good words but sometimes they just aren’t there and I wait for them. 

So I write better than I talk. No such thing as a clumsy pause when writing and even then you can edit before you throw it out for consumption. I would make a terrible lawyer; I’d need a recess after every sworn statement. Language is always an issue. Even when we agree on what words mean, we often get a spin-factor intended to influence someone’s behavior. When Donald Trump says with great conviction, he has the highest regard for women and then you read his history, you know something has been convoluted. In the end, people tend to believe what they want to believe and the argument is simply protocol, lipstick on the pig. 

I’ve chewed on this idea for two paragraphs and I want to get to the point, if there is one. Think about your words and listen to what you say. Be an active listener. Question what you hear. Someone is trying to sell you something, asking more than it’s worth. Challenge your own ideas and beliefs. If you don’t understand your own weakness, you can’t defend yourself. Things change, people change. If you don’t have the clarity and the courage to change, you become an artifact. Lawyers, and we’re all wanna-be lawyers, appeal to the part of your mind where the decision is born, before you can give it a name. Usually, when people argue, nobody listens. The exchange is simply rehearsing a scripted message while the other person organizes their own rebuttal. If you don’t listen, if you’re preoccupied with reloading, how can you learn anything? P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I don’t want to be the one to prove him right.