A Message to Myself.

One of my new year's resolutions is to work on my language.

Not even learn another language.. no... I need to refine my current one.

I've always been one to get a kick from saying zingers, hilarious (to me) insults, jokingly teasing people. It is more apparently when I'm nervously hanging around people I'm uncomfortable with. I'm not sure what to say so I opt for something silly and sometimes hurtful. And then I spend the next 3 days lamenting why I said such things, ultimately hating the person I become when I'm around other people. And I love to rant.

And perhaps it's my new found religious tolerance (yes, I'm cultivating that too!), and perhaps it's a cornerstone of a philosophy that I respect...

But I'm done. I don't want to be a backbiter. And I don't want to be so negative. Teasing people isn't really all it's cracked up to be, either. An unknown sage once said "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."

So I'm determined to at least be average.

And I can't help but feel that I'm not the only person who needs to clean up my language.


("Venomous Political Rhetoric" can be exchanged with all sorts of things, including "Slander" and "Malicious Teasing" and "Rants of Frustration." Or, even "Words." All words have impact- it's time I choose my ammunition more carefully.)

If you've paid any attention to the news lately, you'll know what this cartoon is in response to...

And while the insults keep flinging from side to side, I can't help but think that all of this hatred really began in our own living rooms. Who do we have to blame for all of this mud flinging? And what happens when people actually believe our rants of frustration and irritation?

What if our politicians are merely our caricatures? When did it ever become okay to be so hateful to one another? And is it really ever in our best interest to be rude to another person?