Memoirs - words have them, too

Posted on | November 16, 2009 |

Often I find it useful to look behind words to find out their history, because they have lifestories also, which - if we know them - are eye opening.

Take that much misused word ‘deadline’. We use it all the time to describe the time some piece of work is due. And some deadlines are flexible. Some are permeable. Not so in the original sense. In every prison, because just about all of them used one, the deadline was the line painted on the ground, close to the perimeter, beyond which an inmate could not go. Step over it and the guard would shoot to kill. Dead Line. No argument.

Knowing that little snippet lets me see my own ‘deadlines’ differently. No one will shoot me if I’m late with an assignment, so why should I use such inflated language that can only make me feel self-important, tense, and grandiose?

The language we use shapes our reality; be careful how you choose.

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