don't worry, I'm still me

For those of you who seem to be getting worried about where all this bible reading etc is taking me, fear not I'm still me! So much so that when I saw this blog it made me laugh so much my sides ached (sorry Dad, I'll have a go at new pop up windows another time, for now I'm using the clever 'link' button which gets you what you're given with no techie input on my behalf...).

I can remember heated discussions on PC language in the past and finding myself on both sides of the fence. I've no idea quite what I was arguing with Dad about years ago when he hit me with the retort "so I suppose you think it should be 'Personchester' then" (as opposed to Manchester, a city over the hill from where we lived - kinda loses something when you have to explain!) but I was obviously advocating more inclusive language (possibly not using 'chairman' but chair/chairperson - my arguement for that being if the person is female then in terms of plain speaking chairman is inaccurate) and I took a high heid yin from head office to task when working for the Employment Dept for repeatedly talking about 'manning the desk' at a New Horizons For Women conference (all about empowering women) - he was decidedly non-plussed with my suggestion of 'staffing' but did eventually take the hint! But on the other hand I've had run ins with CYPC over Rosy Glows vs Cosy Glows, or Affirmation Sheets as they call them here - doesn't have the same ring to it but it sure takes the PC issue away - allegedly people of colour don't blush so 'Rosy' was deemed inappropriate - the fact that I'd always seen it as the fiery warm glow you get inside when reading them, not the colour of your face (these things aren't there to make you blush but to feel good about yourself) and the fact that fire is um, well 'rosy' is apparently beside the point. We agreed to differ in the end.

During my daily perusal of the Quaker blogosphere I came across a comment on someone's blog which referred to the pain felt by some Black American Friends at the use of the term 'overseer', it having for them the connotations of plantations etc. Lorcan's point was about us losing the ability to use certain words, like God, Jesus etc without causing offence to others. It does strike me as sad that so many words these days are being lost to us. In discussion at the Triennial with two YFs from the more christocentric tradition about spiritual language and my sense that I just didn't have the vocabulary to explain myself they asked why I didn't reclaim the language I did know as my own. Reclaim it but at the same time explain what I meant by it, when I did often I would find that others actually meant the same thing too even though I had assumed that coming from a more 'conventional' christian tradition they would mean something else by it. That discussion with Carla and Kayla made WGYF possible for me, it opened my eyes to a lot that I had rejected without really hearing because I had assumed I knew what people meant ('never assume anything' was the most sensible piece of advice I was given when I worked at Garvald and one I should remember more often!). Maybe rather than bending over backwards to avoid using certain words we should work towards reclaiming them, especially for the sake of those who have been hurt by them - face your fear and use it anyway?

The danger is when explaining what you mean by words and at the same time are trying not to offend anyone else you are in serious danger of ending up sounding like something from a Monty Python sketch or The [non offensive] 23rd Psalm...