Re: Pronoun trouble

> There are a few exceptions, but there are a lot of "we" and "it" pronouns.
Those responses are generalized and vague. It is hard to tell where the
responder as an individual stands. It does not appear any contact has been
made between the responder and the receiver in each case. <

There was a standing rule in my counseling groups, "Speak in first person."
I was time after time amazed at how difficult it was to follow the rule.
It's weird how much emotional energy it would take for me to say, "I did
such-n-such," vs. "you know how when you do such-n-such."

Ever since then, it's hard for me not to take notice of how frequently
Americans speak in the second person when talking about themself. I can
remember watching a former Olympic athlete being interviewed once,
describing an accomplishment that few had ever done, and he described it all
in second person, "Yeah, it was amazing, you're walking up to that podium to
receive the gold medal, all those people cheering for you, knowing you've
done something that may never be achieved again..." or somesuch.

So, I'm not surprised most of the resistance statements have similar
indirection. The resistance itself is painful, but it's more painful to say,
"I don't think we can do that," rather than, "That's not how it's done" or
"That's not how we do it."

Chris
tech: http://clabs.org/blog
arts/faith: http://cministries.org/blog


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