Intelligenti pauca

It's that day in the year when sandals in Ottawa relocate to their winter lodging. My toes have been rounded up and corralled into "foot snuggies" (AKA "Socks") and are no longer free-range toes! Tragedy! I'm excited to report that I had a small bowl of soup today. I am still struggling with a less than robust stomach. Two days more! Incidentally, in my session today, I asked the techs why they'd opted for such emo tunes? It was really sad! I said to them that they've saddened me. BTW, the 2 teams who look after me are now called Team Pomegranate and Team Passion Fruit. All fun!

Jerry is stealing blankets to use as fortresses. When we pull out afghans on the sofa, he drags them onto the floor, makes a nest, and settles in! Woe betide you if you move it! He will allow me to drape a throw over my leg, but he settles on my feet instead. He pulls enough for him to lie on. Spoiled pupper!

I’ve been thinking about how we use language as a weapon. It's so pervasive that sometimes we don't recognize what we're doing, but most times, it's deliberate. The weaponization is often pointed out under "PC speech" where well-meaning people identify words or concepts that are potentially problematic. In about 97% of the cases, nobody cares in the slightest, but there's a group of official opposers who will complain - mostly because it wasn't their idea! The rest of the time, the word identified is so common that it affects a large portion of the population. words like "lame" or "dumb" which are recently being discouraged for seemingly disparaging against some groups.

As I mentioned, many of the words identified as problematic don't interfere with most usage, so they are often easily charged with few opponents and holdouts. We're stupidly over-cautious and refer to "the N-word" ; "the F- word" etc. The challenge is-as with all censorship- the words are removed and there's no context. Over-zealous, well-meaning people introduce "Zero-tolerance" policies, so that kids (especially) don't know how to process uncomfortable situations and we fall into an endless loop of cancellation, upset, brouhaha and increased punishments.

I'm not suggesting that we reintroduce careless language again. I tend to agree that there are few legitimate uses for the offensive terms that have been blocked: But "few" is not "none." And there are many good reasons to understand why some words are no longer used. There was, probably apocryphally, a story of a student who sued a teacher for the repeated use of the word, "niggardly," claiming that it was "too close in sound," and was offensive. That, if true, is a sad indictment of the education system, the (im)maturity of students at the tertiary level, and a court system that's bogged in frivolities masquerading as challenges to constitutional rights.

We cannot read or understand material written in earlier eras if we're so squeamish about words. Apart from literature, old news articles would be cut off for language that's out of step with modern sensibilities! How could we then understand historical movements if we can't read what was happening? Wait for someone else to interpret, sanitize and whitewash it? That's lazy, sad, immature and otherwise a pathetic cop-out. Far better to ensure that "uncomfortable" language is read in context, discussed to appreciate the usage and not used in daily conversation. Much the same way we don't use the convoluted language of contracts and legislation is nor common in conversation

OK, I'm putting away my soap-box for the night. My back has been cracking and popping a bit-not painfully, but annoying, nonetheless- so I hoped to stretch it a bit. (No change) I'm now off to bed. where I hope to fall asleep quickly and get a good rest! Sleep well, mes amis et amies!