Monday, July 15, 2013

Blessed Language

“We’ve been pretty blessed.”
         On the way home from a writer’s workshop in New York, the first leg of my trip found me sitting next to a couple with a small baby.  I started talking to them, mostly because I figured that when the baby started crying (which they almost always do on plane flights), having a face and a story to the crying would help alleviate my impatience.  So I struck up a conversation with the couple, who looked to be in their mid to late twenties and had the exhausted yet happy look of new parents.  I asked if their daughter was sleeping through the night yet. 
The wife’s reply was “We’ve been pretty blessed – she’s been sleeping well from the first month.”
        The use of the word “blessed” stuck in my mind.  It’s not a word I use much anymore, although at one time it was.  Time was when I would talk about being “blessed”, as though whatever happened in my life was a gift from someone.  Nowadays, my word choice includes terms like “fortunate” and “lucky.”  A small change – and not a very noticeable one – but still a change.  As my life has slanted towards secularism, I find myself using fewer and fewer of the terms associated with religious belief.  Perhaps this change in vocabulary reflects a change in thinking or perhaps it just reflects the fact that I don’t spend much time in church anymore. 
However, all of this got me thinking about some of the smaller marks that we carry with us.  In this case, the mark of language: the words that we use every day that often give indicators as to who we are and what we do.  For example – I have a background in developmental biology.  As a result, many of my word choices are a reflection of this training.  When I talk about terms like fate, lineage, and specification, I am thinking of some very specific processes that happen during the development of an organism, rather than some of the broader definitions used by society at large. 

Has anyone else noticed a shift in language as your life – and environment – has changed?

9 comments:

  1. I can totally relate to this! I've lost a lot of jargon like "blessed" that used to be a regular part of the way I spoke. It makes sense though, that as we learn and grow our perspectives change, which in turn changes the way we express ourselves.

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  2. I definitely associated "blessed" with church jargon, and I rarely use it anymore, in favor of "fortunate," usually. There are other words--lineage is one, perdition is another--that give me pause when I hear them outside of an LDS context.

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    1. Yeah, sometimes I wonder how the rest of the world views certain terms in the absence of LDS culture.

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  3. I never really liked the word "blessed" to begin with. But I'd have to say I've stopped using the word "grateful" so much.

    ...and started using cuss words more often!

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    1. Definite yes on the cuss words for me as well!

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  4. I don't associate the word blessed with Mormonism at all. I am from Texas and lots of people use the word. One of my favorite expressions is 'Have a blessed day.' It is very Southern. After leaving Mormonism, I still use the word blessed because I still believe in God and I am a Southerner. I love me some iced tea!

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  5. I really try not to use what I consider religious words anymore either. I do however, tell my new non-mormon friends - that I am no longer a mormon, but I do still speak the language :)

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