![]() ![]() I know I’m pushing it and I feel myself going down like a scene from one of those arcade games - crazily unrealistic, leaping across the screen with a gun in each hand, suited and booted in my snow gear, firing shots until I land, face first in the cold deep mounds. The carefully constructed mountain is splitting ‘neath our feet. My candor doesn’t fit the jovial flow of the conversation. The whole beautiful thing comes crashing down around me, and I’m replying before I know what to think. Before I can stop myself, I feel the ice begin to crack. I’m having a forlorn little conversation with myself now: Does he truly think our dear friend, whose heavy accent is at once warm and soft and kind, has a voice that the urban dictionary describes as "language spoken in the hood."Īnd then I know it’s coming. My mind is racing, and I’m careful not to let my displeasure register around the corners of my carefully lacquered mouth. My ears perk up, though did he just say EBONICS? Insert the kind of laughter when, like shared sticky sweets, you’re swapping inside jokes. He’s speaking Ebonics, and I’m like, ‘Whatever you say!’ when I don’t understand a thing.” The whole shenanigan lasted fewer than two minutes flat and ended with him stating, matter-of-factly, that the friend’s ongoing issue could be put to bed if only he would stop speaking Ebonics to everyone. Shabby, really, but he got an A+ for effort and enthusiasm. He went on to do an impression, a short series of awkward gibberish, babble, and gestures. Quite animatedly, he was telling this comrade what a great mutual friend we have, and that if only our friend wasn’t quite so hard to understand, he’d be altogether superb. Here he was, enthusiastically portraying a dear friend of ours to another. Now, I didn’t want to tell him this, not let the wind out of his sails mid-gust - but if not me, then who? I’ve just given it to you.įor reference, today I had to tell a gentleman that he was wrong. One that won’t quite tell you, until after you’ve walked away, what’s broken. The whole process will be a sort of crashing, crunching, blundering fall. It seems as if you could just break the ice, it would be smooth sailing. You think it’s only the getting started that’s difficult. It’s misleading, see? You think you’ll be fine. What they don’t tell you is the entire conversation will be hard. Be brave enough to start a conversation that really matters.īrave, because it will be the hardest thing you ever do. ![]()
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