Just sayin'

So a few (quite a few) years ago I was privileged to attend a PD session (it was a lovely February weekend at Hecla Island, spent with a crew of other Mennonite teachers concerned mostly with getting by and getting paid, while appearing to educate young Mennonites, etc., in a conservative Christian sort of way - it was a noble time in my life) about how the language we use can do violence, or make peace. It was a weekend that was focusing on Conflict Mediation. It was a weekend for liberals. The school was full of conservatives. Even those of us who thought that liberalism had a few merits, were nonplussed by these bleeding hearts. Just sayin'.

What they told us about the language that we use was that the word "but" is a verbal eraser. This is the one piece of advice from the weekend I remember most clearly. We were given the opportunity to role-play scenarios to demonstrate how this was so. A friend and I worked out a little improv that went something like this:

Student: Hey I'd like you to remark my assignment because I think you marked it too hard.

Teacher: Well I'd be happy to do that, but you understand that your mark may as well go down as it may go up.

Student: Oh. Well I guess that's all right then. Thanks.

Teacher: No problem. Anytime. Thanks for asking.

Get it? We completed the assignment to demonstrate verbal erasure using the word "but" and we demonstrated, from our snarky liberal point of view, how teachers are the kind of assholes that can't just be honest, they have to make the point. Just sayin'.

Get it? Just sayin' is the same kind of cowardly, snark-laden, crappy language for which the elegant but used to suffice.

So, if you're getting used to using the phrase "just sayin'" know that you are being a jerk when you do it, unless you know you're being a jerk. In which case there's a chance that you're being funny. But it's just a chance.

Just sayin'.

Ride report:

in: -21'C wind 8 ks SW

out: -18'C wind 5 ks NW