Language Insecurities

I recently ran across an article on hunger and how over 17,000 million children live with "food insecurity."  Before it was okay to say that these same children went to bed hungry.  

My mother had polio as a child and because of it, she had one leg shorter than the other - she limped when she walked.  What I find interesting is that we never thought of her as impaired, handicapped, or disabled.  She did everything she wanted and then some.  I remember her working beside my father in the fields.  My job was to keep track of both of them so that I wouldn't get lost.  

In thinking about our language usage, most people on the "outside" don't know how to call or say what they mean when they see something that makes them uncomfortable.  Most of the time,what they do use, makes the people they are talking about uncomfortable.  I remember once in a store, some woman asked my mother how she was able to get along being handicapped.  I thought my mother was going to come unglued because she had very little patience when something as directed at her.  I remember her saying something to the effect that she was no more handicapped than the woman and could probably run circles around her.  

Who makes up the silly rules about being politically correct or not?  Do the English professors for the upper classes sit around on Saturday mornings over coffee and pastry and decide what is going to be correct from that point on? 

We need to think about our language and our use of it.  Because I know that what is in my mind is what is creating my life, I am very careful of what I am thinking and what I say.  I invite you to do the same with me.

The Richest of Blessings

In my socializing with different groups of people and listening to what the conversations are about, I realized that what I was hearing was what was valuable to them at this time.  Most were mid-thirties, and the conversations were about family, vacations, and work.  Most were already talking about "when..."  When they retire, when the kids are out of school, when they could quit working, etc.  

In thinking about those conversations and the lack of thinking through some of the statements made, I had to come back to my life and I felt very grateful that I can work or not, I  have more than enough money to do what I want to, and I can choose a life experience that enhances all of what is going on with me.  

I realized that the differences in the conversations were the values that have been set up or that they believe they need at this time of life.  I was so focused on a career in my mid-thirties that retirement never came into the equation until much later in life.  Even after retirement, I realized that what I needed was time to rest a bit or to take a sabbatical and then get right back into the game of life.  

The quality of my lifestyle now is because I kept in the game long enough to get what it is that I wanted while I was still able to do the long stretches of work.  Youth really is wasted on the young.  I didn't realize while younger that I had more than enough energy to do so much more than I was doing.  

I realize that the values were different when I was moving up the career ladder than what it is now.  However, I am really grateful and can appreciate the lifestyle I have based on the values I decided I needed at the time.  Thinking about life and what I wanted to accomplish early on has served me well.  I encourage you to keep on while you can and think about a higher quality of life as you move forward into your later life.