Words from the Heart

With the advent of the "Me, too" campaign, I have seen a disturbing rise in the use of the word bitch on social media. What is disturbing is that young women are using this word to describe themselves. Why, I ask? When we coop words that have been used to denegrate, demean and dehumanize people to identify ourselves, we are giving our power away, not strengthing it. This form of identity is akin to the idea of "if you can't beat them, join them." Do we, as women, really want to do that? This blog was built on the belief that words hold power. They can hurt, as well as heal. We decide in our day-to-day use of language, which we want to promote.  So, let's step back for a moment and look at the etymology of the word, bitch.  " bitch (n.)Old English bicce "female dog," probably from Old Norse bikkjuna "female of the dog" (also of the fox, wolf, and occasionally other beasts), which is of unknown origin. Grimm derives the Old...

  The recent controversy over the Coca-Cola commercial in which people across this diverse country sang, America the Beautiful , in their native languages has spurred me to write.  As an educator and as an ordained minister, I feel called to point a few things out. First, the attitude that if you live in America then you should speak the language of the country is a bit skewed.  "America" is vast, consisting of North, Central and South.  The "native" language of this vast land is Native American in its various dialects.  Quite honestly, I only know a handful of people who speak Native American. I come by this knowledge through the privilege of an education in Boston schools, which at the time I went to them were not considered to be the cream of academia.  However, I had amazingly dedicated teachers who informed my awareness that we - those of European roots - were not "native" to this land we call The United States. To be honest, I think the fact ...

Accents have a way of getting in the way of our understanding of words at times.  I realized this the other day while taking pictures of my granddaughter and her aunt as they put on a puppet show.  They had made an impromptu stage out of the little one's bed and a blanket.  They used two Wild Things puppets for their little play.   I took pictures to document the moment.  At the end of the play, I said in my Boston accent, "OK, show me the puppeteers."   Without a pause, my three-year old granddaughter raised her puppet, saying, "Waaa, Waaa."     It wasn't until she peeked over the sheet, holding up her puppet and said, "Puppets don't cry...they smile...see!" that I realize that what she heard me ask to see was "puppet tears ."  Needless to say, it cracked us all up.   The point of all this is that often we run into problems in life because one person hears something completely different from what another person has said....