Like

Over five years ago when I began this weblog I vowed I would not use the word ‘like’ in any inappropriate way.  I have not.  I renew the vow.

I only bring this up again because since then I believe the problem of sloppy, shallow English language usage has only gotten worse.  It is obvious to me that few people under the age of about forty read Old Schooler (formerly Omnium-Gatherum Millerum), or if they do are much-influenced or persuaded by it—at least by this early posting (June 25, 2010). 

 

The real problem for me is that I am amazed that young people who are educated in our schools are so inarticulate—that their vocabulary is so limited, imprecise, and unimaginative.  Language expression is important.  Clear language reflects clear thinking.  Exactness in language is like exactness in measurement or in calculations.  It does matter where a number or decimal point is placed.  It does matter the order or inclusion of letters in the correct spelling of a word.  It does matter what word is chosen if one hopes to be understood.  Otherwise, it is but a guess as to a speaker’s meaning. 

Our professional adult culture in journalism or broadcasting or public speaking or academics would not put up with such butchered, unpolished, impoverished expression as we hear from our younger generation.  (Some of our middle-aged generation in casual expression are even now becoming sloppy in the use of ‘like’; perhaps it is because of a desire to appear young and chic—‘whatever.’) 

It is ‘like,’ ‘you know,’ “Ignorance of one’s own ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.” (Montaigne) 

No, I’m afraid they do not know.  Explain it to me.

Alas, they can’t. 

With Real Intent

I remember as a boy learning about the concept of a spectrum or continuum as the ‘fill in’ between extremes.  This further clarified the notion and rarity of ‘absolutes’ in behavioral terms. 

For some, it gave license to be content with a norm or a mean point between the extremes.  For others, if you were anywhere on the ‘positive’ side of the continuum it was good enough.  For yet others, the ‘absolute’ on the positive side of the continuum became the goal.  Examples of these types of individuals would be those who strive for athletic records or A+ academic grade point averages or the ‘most,’ or ‘biggest,’ or ‘best’ or a celestial heaven or of whatever is their highest value.

I always tried to be on the positive side of the continuum.  I even subscribed in my twenties to a ‘pursuit of excellence’ program created by my Church to challenge participants in their spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, and physical dimensions. 

 

Had I done this program in my teenage years and let people know I was doing it I suppose I would have been labeled an extremist, or a ‘goodie-goodie’ by my friends. Well I didn’t and wasn’t but only because I didn’t know of the program then.  “For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men wherein they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (Doctrine and Covenants 123:12).

Knowing my proclivities even at a young age, had I been challenged to try the program, I believe I would have notwithstanding my peers’ possibly negative evaluations.  For I would have rather been thought of as a ‘goodie-goodie’ than a ‘baddie-baddie,’ if there is such a term. 

 

The way I figured it—and still do—is that if a person is convinced of the rightness of a course of action he should do it ‘with real intent.’ 

 

I realized that being a very average person in terms of ‘natural’ endowments I would have to work harder than average to achieve. I would have to apply myself with real intent if I wanted to win the prize.  And so, I had to set my sights high. I learned, as Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, that “to hit the mark, you have to aim above the mark.”  I also believed the maxim, learned, I think from my father, that ‘if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.’ 

 

Consequently, after seven decades of living I have had validated and confirmed again and again the truth that if you do any good thing ‘with real intent’ and persist in it long enough you will be blessed.  This is true with prayer—“For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing” (Moroni 7:6)—with faith in God, with academic achievement, with good health, with noble associations, or with that which produces happiness and a useful life.

The Spirit Indeed is Willing but . . .

the flesh is weak.

   

The first part of this little scriptural couplet (Matthew 26:41) is true for many, but the last part is true for all.

I think that most people, initially, want to do right—want to follow their conscience, their diet or savings plan, their New Year’s resolutions, indeed their heart.  Their spirit is/was willing.  But everybody finds that eventually their body lets them down. 

The shelf life for an athlete, for example, or a beauty queen, but even for most well-intentioned, well-educated young adults eventually falls to the ravages of time.  The second law of thermodynamics is always operative; we have to continually fight entropy (the running down or disintegration of any system). When the years of the life of a person is graphed, the charted ‘curve’ for most people has a long fall off ‘tail’ to the right.

But it doesn’t have to happen that way.  It is the goal of preventative health advocates, and to a larger degree possible than many people believe, to ‘square off’ the curve. That is, to keep ourselves physically functional and operatively healthy for many years longer than many people do.  We do not have to be victims of the tyranny of birthdays.  Our chronological age does not dictate our functional age. 

 

Yes, we will all eventually die (a grave marker I read in a Boston cemetery read, “I knew this would happen!”) but unless we are victims of unavoidable accident or the consequences of war or a deranged shooter or contract a deadly communicable disease, or the like, most of us could live longer and much healthier than we do.  We could live, live, live, live. . . and then die.  Instead, far too many live robustly for a few years and then dieeeeeeeeee over a protracted period of many years. 

  

The key to this longer, healthier, more productive life is for the spirit to be not only ‘willing,’ but disciplined.  We can fight entropy. The knowledge is out there about what to avoid that is deleterious to one’s health and what to include and do to contribute to good physical and mental health. I would suggest you find and read Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, especially the chapter on 'Sharpen the Saw,' the essence of this posting. It will provide you with an understanding of how to discipline the spirit to fight entropy.

I have found that the disciplined person, as they age, almost always has a happier life.