{"id":3255,"date":"2014-05-24T12:17:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T16:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2014-05-24T23:33:59","modified_gmt":"2014-05-25T03:33:59","slug":"a-2-letter-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3255","title":{"rendered":"a 2 letter word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"628px-Scrabble_tiles_wooden\"<\/a>I had another \u201ca-ha\u201d moment last week \u2014 one of those things you believe really should have been learned in kindergarden or at least somewhere along the way \u2014 one of those learnings that even the most educated among us seem to neglect…<\/p>\n

I stumbled upon life\u2019s arguably, most omitted word… an unusually small word, but a word so powerful it changes perception… a word when included, it actually alters the meaning of the message.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest (as if I\u2019m sometimes not)…<\/i> omission of the word is easier; to include even its mere two letters \u2014 a single vowel accompanied by a consonant \u2014 means having to acknowledge \u201clife\u2019s gray.\u201d\u00a0<\/i> In other words, life\u2019s a little easier when we dabble in black and white, resolutely asserting opinion \u2014 ardently proclaiming \u201cthis is true\u201d<\/em> and \u201cthis is not\u201d<\/em> \u2014 never having to wrestle with the possibility that a scenario may be different than we perceive it… never having to consider that we may not have all the information… and never having to contemplate that our perspective may be misguided or the depth of our passion unsubstantiated.<\/p>\n

The word is simple:\u00a0 \u201cIF.\u201d<\/p>\n

If.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIf\u201d changes the meaning.\u00a0 Allow me to demonstrate, utilizing a masculine pronoun for rhetorically simple purposes this day…<\/p>\n

If he is guilty…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he is innocent…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he is racist…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he is a bigot…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he is a homophobe…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he is any kind of \u201cphobe\u201d…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he is ignorant…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he doesn\u2019t understand…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he doesn\u2019t care…<\/i><\/p>\n

If he doesn\u2019t know…<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Instead, in our incredibly convenient, \u201cblack and white” world, we far too frequently assert:<\/p>\n

He is guilty.<\/i><\/p>\n

He is innocent.<\/i><\/p>\n

He is racist.<\/i><\/p>\n

He is a bigot.<\/i><\/p>\n

He is a homophobe.<\/i><\/p>\n

He is some kind of \u201cphobe.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

He is ignorant.<\/i><\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t understand.<\/i><\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t care.<\/i><\/p>\n

And he doesn\u2019t know.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It makes life easier when we can omit the \u201cif\u201d… perhaps omitting the \u201cand\u2019s\u201d and \u201cbut\u2019s,\u201d too.\u00a0 But once again, life being easier does equate to the manifestation of wisdom.\u00a0 Living in a black and white world means never growing from the reality that we are sometimes \u201coff\u201d in our opinion and perspective.\u00a0 Even the most educated and intelligent are sometimes off; the passionate are off.\u00a0 We<\/i> are off.<\/p>\n

We would be wise to refrain from omission.\u00a0 If only<\/i> the world was so wise…<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had another \u201ca-ha\u201d moment last week \u2014 one of those things you believe really should have been learned in kindergarden or at least somewhere along the way \u2014 one of those learnings that even the most educated among us seem to neglect… I stumbled upon life\u2019s arguably, most omitted word… an unusually small word, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “a 2 letter word”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[436],"class_list":["post-3255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life","tag-assumptions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3263,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/3263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}