Americans repeat certain words with mindless ease without once
regarding their definitions, their real meanings or their
connotative meanings. Their use or perhaps their misuse is a
good reflection of the health of our culture or the lack of it.
Without including four letter words and expletives with the
exception of...love, you will not be able to reach the end of
this list without remembering that you have probably heard one
or more of these words today alone. If you do not recall hearing
them for a while it may be that you live an isolated life in the
mountains or you have found company that would be the envy of
any halfway intelligent person.
Relationship: Here is a word that is used to qualify, justify
and honey coat just about every nefarious, sleazy or
reprehensible union between just about anybody and anything.
Recently on an edition of the Jerry Springer show a guest was
about to be interviewed who was getting it on with a very close
relative. Heckles, and murmurs flowed through the crowd from the
moment they entered the room and much of the way through the
interview. Everything quieted down instantly when Springer asked
the question, using in this case the great justifier. He asked
how long they had been having this relationship. The audience
quieted at first then began to add their opinions and advice as
if the word relationship provided all the civility and credence
needed to put this obviously perverted affair back into the
realm of respectability or at least acceptability. The word is
used today to describe everything from marriages to the
on-goings between a farmer and his barn animals. This is an
overused word that has elevated some of the worst unions in
history to a place they hardly deserve.
Love: The word love has but one general definition in the
English language but in contrast there are over forty
definitions for it in the Greek. Unfortunately definitions for
this word are almost always unknown, ignored or drawn from only
the basest and lowest of human response. Usually it is defined
by physical attraction. If it goes beyond that it wouldn’t be
intelligence that got it moved up the ladder but mostly time.
That is, the longer a love has existed the less it requires pure
physical attraction to exist. The Greeks speak of three distinct
types of love, physical, brotherly and Godly. In America we
don’t get that fancy. It is a great loss that we do not ponder
the glib use of this majestic little word, and the few who do
have given it the value that turns our heads, pricks our ears,
provokes great writers, enables hero soldiers and motivates the
most notable philanthropists of our nation. If it were possible
to tie the hands and secure the tongue of any average teenager
who claimed to be in love the whole affair would in most cases
endure less than twenty four hours. This is not meant to show
disdain for youth or young love but only to invoke a search for
a more practical definition of love as early in life as
possible. A good definition to adopt or at least ponder might
be… Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. Jesus…John 15:13
Fun: The word fun has become a three letter giant in the
American psyche. It would seem that it can cover any kind of bad
youthful behavior, adult excess, or fickle feathered phantasm
that festers in any fool, foul up or clown on the continent. We
seem to think that we have a right, no a mandate to have this
poorly defined aspect of American behavior ready to engage us at
the freeing of any moment we are not doing the other thing
Americans do when not engaged in fun…work. We are constantly
reminded that Americans work hard and play hard. This notion is
great for selling trucks but leaves a lot to be desired when
trying to gather meaning from what is left in between. Fun is
just that …fun. It is healthy and provides a natural resource of
rejuvenating energy for almost everyone. It is the driven
pursuit of fun that causes others around the world to think of
Americans as mindless party animals who don’t take life very
serious. I don’t like that assessment anymore than anyone else
but I can hear a tiny voice over my shoulder saying…if the shoe
fits.
Psychiatrist: A newspaper headline over twenty five years ago in
a New Orleans newspaper read…Psychiatry Fast Replacing Religion
in America. I could never get that headline out of my mind and
now twenty five years later I must say it is largely true. The
price for this transition from religion to psychiatry has been
costly and disheartening at best. In the interim many headlines
and reports have told us that psychiatrists have the highest
rate of suicides and the lowest success rate for helping their
patients than all others in the medical profession. One can
almost see a microcosm of the entire profession over the last
quarter century by comparing three fairly well known
psychiatrists from television. No insult intended to those in
the profession. Once again let’s be reminded that perception in
America is the better part of reality. First we see Sydney the
spry little psychiatrist from the famous MASH series with Alan
Alda. He solves almost all shellshock, homesickness and phobias
in soldiers with only a few minutes of counseling, hypnosis or
shoot from the hip diagnoses that perhaps an eight year old
adolescent might have come up with if given a chance. Whether
this was possible doesn’t matter. It was the beginning of the
takeover of religion and we wanted to believe that it was
working. Next came, Bob Newhart, taking a little more time on
matters, conducting sessions and follow ups that left us with
one thing if nothing else. Newhart assured us that all we needed
to do is, get in touch with our feelings. Ah, there’s a good
replacement for religion. Enter Frasier, a psychiatrist who
bungled his own suicide attempt to go to radio show psychiatry.
He provided pop psychiatry for those too busy to make
appointments or who wouldn’t take him too seriously anyway. His
answers to his callers often being as silly as his show, but
after all it was good clean fun, remember that word, but lets
close in for the bottom line. Should we trust our very minds to
a profession whose history so closely parallels these three TV
shrinks? Psychiatrist, is an overused over rated word that will
be lowered a few notches in any serious reality check.
Religion: Now we can look at the word used for what was supposed
to be replaced by modern psychiatry. Religion if nothing else is
an enigma. The word has almost as many definitions as the people
you ask to define it. Some people say all religions are like
roads that in the end will all lead us to God. This is a lot
like saying that if you leave Boston and go due north in time
you will come to San Francisco. In case you have a very poor
sense of direction, do not take that route because you will
never be heard from again. Some say that religion is a word that
means different things to different people but in the end they
are all praying to or worshipping the same God. Oh really! I am
a Christian and I know when I worship God I am not worshipping
the God who will give me fifty virgins if I go hurt someone who
doesn’t believe like me. In fact that is a God I wouldn’t want
to worship. To others the word religion conjures pictures of the
austere life with strict rules and long hard lists of dos and
don’ts. The Bible says it isn’t what men do or don’t do, but
what Christ has done for them that make things right between God
and man. Personally I like having the imaginary scale of good
deeds and bad deeds that plagued my conscience removed by the
concept of the grace of God. Gods’ ideas are always easier to
bear than the ones we devise in the name of religion. Most
people think they could turn to the Bible for many good
definitions for religion. You can’t. The word religion is used
only five times in the entirety of scripture and only once is it
given a definition. James 1:27 Religion is thought to be
anything from the adoration of nature to dancing over a bed of
coals. It is an extremely over used word that should not be left
to those who often utter the phrase about never discussing
either politics or religion. It also should not be left to those
who don’t believe in God at all. If I want to learn how to fly I
wouldn’t consult the books written by Jacques Cousteau. It has
taken on a connotation that is too large for the whole world. I
think I’ll stick to the gospel of Christ and the simple
definition offered in James 1:27
Romance: If you asked the next ten people what their definition
of romance would be you will undoubtedly get ten very different
but very personal definitions. It is perhaps one of those words
that most people think is only open to a personal definition. If
you ask men this question you may get some to answer, some would
ignore you and the remainder would freeze up or change the
subject at super sonic speed. Women would give you answers that
if collaged together would comprise the typical singles ad in
the 'women looking for man' section of the dating magazine. Long
walks on the beach, intimate conversation, humor, candle lit
dinners and holding hands. Is this romance? Or should I say is
this all it is? Maybe the definition of this word should be left
in the wide gray area where it is now, an area of wispy
feelings, mystery and heart choking moonlit flower strewn
landscapes with gentle music in the background. Yeah I like that
too, but in the end it isn’t what is in the end. Romance can
include these scenes but unless our eyes are wide open and our
sense of tomorrow is engaged to temper the other five senses
romance will go the way of all flesh. Romance then is an
embellishment that is used to spice the furtherance of the real
stuff…love, remember that word? As far as I know romance has not
yet been found to produce world peace or build the world’s
tallest skyscraper but it holds its own for what it is supposed
to do, with or without a universally clear definition.
Commercials: Here is a word many people love to hate.
Television, radio, internet and all other media bombard us with
messages, ads and pictures about everything from soap to
potatoes. If someone has the particular statistics on just how
many commercials we watch in a day or a lifetime I don’t want to
know it. I don’t need a statistician to tell me when I’ve had
enough to eat. We try to add dignity to them with phrases like,
a word from our sponsor, we will return right after these
messages, or we’ll be right back after the break. Who will give
us a break from the commercials? The commercial busting
technology of Tivo started slowly but now DVRs are popping up
quickly to fill the gap. These are wonderful electronic devices
that enable us to skip through all the commercials and keep
watching the programs we started with. At last for some this
means the cessation of the bombardment and the end of the
constant insult to our intelligence. Internet providers have
gone all out to provide us with spam busting technology isn’t it
about time someone has finally gotten after the rest of the
media. Magazines at least leave us with the option to read or
not to read. Billboards and outdoor ads are another matter that
won’t be so easily solved. One example of what happens when
outdoor advertisements are scaled down could be seen by taking
your next vacation in Vermont. Roadside billboards and
indiscriminate signs and posts are unlawful there. May seem a
bit harsh but hardly anyone who has ever visited Vermont
wouldn’t agree that it is one of the most beautiful states in
the country. We really haven’t abused the word commercials but
with or without a succinct definition we have greatly abused
what the word has come to mean, interruption.
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