{"id":99,"date":"2015-03-16T09:36:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T13:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67.249.26.136\/wordpress\/?p=99"},"modified":"2015-03-16T09:36:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T13:36:25","slug":"whats-in-a-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"What’s In A Word?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last week was particularly frustrating. \u00a0On two separate occasions someone chose to read more than I typed, and it caused friction. \u00a0While not lacking passion, I am generally a literalist. \u00a0When I write, I choose my words carefully to convey specific meaning. \u00a0I try very hard to say what I mean, and ONLY what I mean. \u00a0(Being human I sometimes fail, but I do try!) \u00a0Yet people insist on seeing \u201ctone\u201d or subtext in what I write\u2014they read between\u00a0the lines, see something that isn\u2019t actually there, and somehow manage to conclude that I should be communicating \u201cbetter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example. \u00a0Let\u2019s say you and I are out for a drive on roads neither of us has traveled before. \u00a0We have no knowledge of what road goes where or where we will end up. \u00a0You are driving. \u00a0You are also deaf, and my only means of communicating with you is by typing a note on my tablet and holding it up for you to read.\u00a0 We come to a fork in the road and you decide to go left. \u00a0At the next stop sign (because we\u2019re being safe) I hold up my tablet. \u00a0It says: \u201cWhy did you go left and not right?”<\/p>\n

That is a very simple, straightforward question. \u00a0In my mind, it doesn\u2019t need clarification. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t need explanation. \u00a0I am simply curious as to what, if there is one, was the reason you chose to go left.\u00a0\u00a0Yet there are those who would read that and SEE, somehow, \u201cWTF?! You should have gone RIGHT back there!”<\/p>\n

I\u00a0don\u2019t understand. \u00a0Nor do I feel I should have to disclaim statements and inquiries, to wit: \u201cBy asking the following question I want you to know that I am in no way critical of your choice to turn left at that fork back there, nor do I think we should have gone the other way. \u00a0I am merely curious: Why did you go left and not right?”<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that ridiculous? \u00a0Isn\u2019t that a waste of time both to write and to read? \u00a0And yet, I feel that if I don\u2019t start doing that, I\u2019m just in for more of the same.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week was particularly frustrating. \u00a0On two separate occasions someone chose to read more than I typed, and it caused friction. \u00a0While not lacking passion, I am generally a literalist. \u00a0When I write, I choose my words carefully to convey specific meaning. \u00a0I try very hard to say what I mean, and ONLY what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}