You may have noticed the abundance of statements such as: ‘with love, I own myself, empathy, I love, sorry’. I take them one by one:
‘With love’ – I often hear this automatic answer. We no longer say ‘for nothing’, ‘with pleasure’; we love it now. Seriously? So much? I have some doubts.
‘I own myself’ – when I hear this, I feel like asking, ‘So, what are you doing? How do you own, how do you fix an error you own, exactly? ‘
‘Empathy’ – we ask for empathy from others, but how much empathy do we show ourselves? How do you ask for something you don’t show yourself?
‘Excuse me’ – too often people use this verb without repairing what they have done; they apologizes and the next day they start over, as if wiping the excuses with a sponge would give them permission to repeat.
‘I love …’ – I love ice cream, I love travel, I love that Facebook page or who knows what …
Maybe I’m strict, but maybe some words should be used more carefully. Bringing love into prosaic risks emptying it of its precious meaning.
We use words to cover a gap – as if we are pretending that ‘tout est bien dans le meilleur des mondes’ (everything is fine in the best of worlds), Voltaire said.
It is not a good idea to talk about many topics; everything is blurred, pastel, inert.
I had the opportunity to listen to the gentleman who owns the Buhara carpet galleries. He said not to be afraid of colors, of colored carpets, to avoid the banality of pale tones, where nothing stands out. I think it is also true of words; after all, conversations are an indication of our thinking. Shortcuts, automatisms don’t help us much.
The dialogue becomes poor, fast forward, as if we don’t have time or we are not in the mood to talk.
So, it helps if we are looking for a richer vocabulary, just like the various tones in a carpet.