Checking Your Verbage

I saw something today that caught my full undivided attention, listed on my study information for Miss Rodeo Oregon try outs. I was impressed with the ability that this one line had to change my whole thought process for the day.

The webpage that I was reading was listing the “17 Facts that you need to know about animal abuse.” The last bullet, fact number 17, stated that “Animal abuse is not a Facebook opinion…” which I interpreted as the following: “Opinions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other forms of social media are not, in any way, shape or form, FACT. There is no legality or truth to anything that you read on those sites.”

It’s such an interesting point. I have a co-worker who throws the word harassment around like burger joint servers ask, “Do you want fries with that?” It’s insane! At first I was highly uncomfortable with her doing that but, eventually, I became immune. I even caught myself making a joke about my horse harassing me for treats. Reading that statement in that one article made me rethink everything.

I think that we are treating opinions like legal fact. That because we saw someone post something, somewhere, we immediately believe that it is the cold hard facts on the legal matters of the situation. IT’S NOT THOUGH! Think of all the statements you have heard people make that you thought was absolutely preposterous; that is what I am going for here.

I think, that as adults and role models, we need to make a better effort in our society to make sure that we “check our verbage”. Checking your verbage is something that I get all of the time at my work, not me persay but I have had my moments as well. What my boss means when he says “Check your verbage” is that we need to make sure we stay in a diplomatic and formal way of speaking, to not let slang take over our manner of speaking.

When I was discussing all of this information and wonderment with another one of my co-workers she made a reference about how I didn’t swear and she found it interesting. I wasn’t sure how to explain that one either, I thought it was strange that I had to defend myself as a non-swearer. Typically, I will make a reference in that I don’t think that God is very happy with me when I swear, that’s why I feel so terrible after I do it. I hate that sick to the stomach guilt feeling that you get when you use a swear word, especially in reference to another being. The co-worker that I was talking to is very religious though and I didn’t want to make her feel guilty by her choice of speaking. I explained it to the best that I could: I want to be role model to younger woman. I want to represent the classy young, influential, inspiring and empowering young woman that you see in the old movies. To be the person that I want to be means that I have no time time for swearing, because I hold myself to a higher and classier standard than that. I don’t hold others to the standard but I want to keep myself accountable.I will admit though that sometimes I slip up, usually when i am texting a close friend, but in a way that is almost worst because that’s savable for republishing. I need to hold myself accountable in all forms of my life.

Where I am going with this monologue is that I want all of us to make a better effort to really understand what we are saying. We affect more people than we could ever think with our actions and words; it’s about high time that we started paying more attention to the way we speak. Understand that we shouldn’t rant about something that we don’t know anything about. We need to know the significance of what we are saying, “I should just go die”, “Oh my God”, “JESUS CHRIST!”, “go kill ourself!” and so many other phrases that emotionally wound others.

Maybe we should all make a better effort and “check our verbage.”