Michael Commane
Words are simply amazing. If you think about it, they really are fascinating. The thoughts they convey … words have a power that we all too often take for granted.
Anyone who has ever taught young people will be aware of how certain words come in and out of fashion. School teachers have the great privilege of being in touch with the 'cool' words of the day.
There are always those words or phrases that are on the tips of the tongues of young people. But fashion in words is not exclusive to young people.
Last week I was trying to explain to an Englishman how we used the word 'Baluba', and why in Ireland it did not denote membership of a central African tribe, as one might expect.
There was that phrase 'Get up the yard'. It meant almost anything and was a catchword of Benjy's in the in the RTE TV soap, The Riordans.
And then there are all those annoying in-words and phrases. 'Oh my God' trips off the tongues of young people. Heaven preserve us from the person who can never talk about the future, but must forever be going forward.
Along with words conveying ideas, they also tell us much about the people who use them. Advertising and public relations companies spend vast sums of money and energy in crafting words in such a way that they will catch the imagination of their targets.
These days we are inclined to call those wordsmiths who work for politicians or large corporations 'spin doctors'. There is a derogatory aspect to it, in that a 'spin doctor' is often seen as someone who 'spins' the truth. It's seen as a subterfuge for telling lies or at least, half-truths.
Words, if they are to hold fast to their genuine meaning, are all about truth. Or at least they should be. Have you ever observed the spokesperson sent out to sell a story and you immediately know that he or she is simply giving the party line? It is always happening. And so annoying.
But there is a facility in the human psyche that gives us the ability or aptitude to appreciate when someone is spoofing. Then again, right through history people have fallen prey to schemers and liars.
How often do we hear the party/organisation/church/trade unionist/journalist 'spokespeople’ peddling the line that is expected of them? The thoughtful listener knows when to be wary.
Maybe right now in our society people are punch drunk from being fed less than the truth and are subsequently looking in every possible direction to find vehicles of truth that seem to them to be real and authentic.
Alas, there is also a great danger with that, in that people can be manipulated and cajoled into following false prophets.
There are no simple answers. But those who heard the words of Jesus were immediately struck with his authenticity.
In tomorrow's Gospel Mark tells his readers: "And his teaching made a deep impression on them because , unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority." (Mk 1: 22) It really is a fabulous sentence.
The words jump off the page and have a universal appeal. Jesus talks to a group of people and they immediately spot that he is speaking real words to them and they are at once enthralled with him. They are delighted to listen to this man after all the nonsense, lies and spoof they are accustomed to hearing from the scribes and Pharisees.
All we can do, with a mix of faith and reason, is to keep alert in attempting to discern the truth in the words that are spoken to us.
1 comment:
Re: your mention of the long forgotten Baluba.
Re your general point: it is indeed a long hard road keeping words from being devalued, but a fight worth fighting. Otherwise all we will have left is George Orwell's Newspeak.
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