Trigger Warning
We do the human experience much injustice when we stunt it with language limitations. When we simplify existence into labels, we lose so much between the letters.
I am a realist- I understand why we use language to communicate. It’s important to our connections with others, it’s important to understanding ourselves and our world, and it’s efficient. However, I believe that in a perfect world, we would slow down and take the time to truly communicate, rather than exhausting all of an experience into the decision of what words to use. We decide on “racism”, and we lose the experience that makes humans understand what it means. We say “slavery happened years ago”, instead of saying “white people used to skin black people.” We make it digestible, when it should choke you up. We lose the details that mean the most, as awful as they are.
There is a reason humans can overlook things so utterly vile and potent in our society. We say “school shooting” so often I think we have forgotten what it means. We have found a way to distance ourselves from accountability and empathy, by creating language that replaces our reality with a quick and tidy substitute.
With simplicity, we wipe away blood. In the same way, we take the color out of everything.
We say, “I’m pregnant” so often, I think we forget we are saying “my body is creating life within its own walls of my skin”. When we flatly say, “How was your day” we dishonor our gift to experience the world another day.
We are simplifying everything to death!
(Update: I have recently remembered the word jargon. Feel free to excuse this entire post and replace it with the following statement: I hate human experience jargon! Slow down and sit with your words!)