Smaller Vocabularies
Often, intelligence and large vocabularies go hand-in-hand. This was certainly something that I strove for as a youth, and something that was accused of me as well. Those people who told me I used big words too often, were really paying me a compliment. A few things have happened to me since then, and now I often treasure the value of a smaller vocabulary. At home, if my brother would ever hear me say a word that he didn't understand, he would ask what it meant. So, I would give him another word that meant essentially the same thing. Then, every time, he would say, "then why didn't you just say that?" While I still crave learning for myself and encourage it for others, I firmly believe that an educated person should be better able to communicate with people than had he not been educated. Sure every word has it's unique meaning, but many are unnecessary, and many have definitions that are hardly agreed upon.
This came to my mind when I was discussing with a friend our mutual upbringing. He suggested that looking back now, with his newly informed point of view that it seemed almost cultic to him now. I didn't respond to that point, thus changing the topic, only because the word "cult" is no longer part of my vocabulary. "Cults" are so loosely defined that I cannot find a suitable definition for myself, let alone one that would be universally agreed upon in a discussion. Cults are often defined as people with weird beliefs, fringe religions, brain-washers, being focused on one "leader", etc. All of these titles alone are insufficient, and together rule too many out. As well, most of these titles could very easily be applied to various wings of the Christian church, including my own. I don't know what a cult is, so I don't use the word (unless I'm talking about how I don't know what it is).

   [ posted by William @ 10:58 PM ]