[compost_tea] Re: words / was sustainable farming .... brewing
One of the best college classes I ever took was
on psychological persuasion techniques.
I learn how advertising by marketers or politicians (etc.)
used language to persuade / entice you to buy stuff, or
to believe in them. How advertising appealed to unconscious mixed
motives. (Implied but not stated: This car makes you a hot sexy dude
and you will get the girls.)
The many ways people spin information
or market public images with emotional and "symbol"
words or imagery (God, Country, Flag, Church, Children)
I also learned how difficult interpersonal communications are due to
word usage and languaging
On the very first day of class, she said:
I am going to tell you what the words I will be using will mean.
If at anytime I use a term I have not predefined and you are
getting lost, ask me for a specific definition and meaning and even in
what context I am using it.
That way we all have a better chance of being "on the same page"
and you will be more able to understand what is being discussed.
Years later, she came to mind when I was having a phone
conversation. After debating with a friend about a given
issue for some 30 minutes, I discovered we actually agreed
on the issue. The problem was every time I used one word
I hit a "hot button" he had -- I had one connotation for it, he
had another another. The word was discipline -- for him it
brought up all sorts of bad memories of a hostile angry drunk father
who disciplined with a belt or his fists; to me it mean
instructing and setting boundries of acceptable behavior. To
him it meant brutal punishment; to me it meant teaching and
guiding. For what he was describing, I would use the word
punishment but punishment went over the line into child abuse. But,
seems these days with all the zero tolerance kind
of thinking in instutitions, discipline is nothing but punishment.
It brought home what I had forgotten -- words mean different
things to different people. Even in the dictionary, the meaning
of any given word can be variable. And over time, word meanings
change. Eg: The gay old flapper days vs the gay world today.
Its interesting how we all have our own imagery to go with
even simple words -- say the word chair. A camper may think of
a foldable portable chair, an ego maniac will picture a throne;
and a thief may think of the electric chair. And with the picture
comes a whole frame of reference, memories, and very different
emotional states.
I once asked a garden worker at a public garden if they used
compost tea. Immediately his face filled with disgust. He
replied: ... yes he had tried it, then said all manner of derogatory
things about it. Since I was with others and needed to move along, I
didn't have time
to find out what "tea" he used, or how he got it or made it -- or any
ask other specifics. But I doubt we had the same substance or
concepts in mind.
Picture we are at a community garden planning event: You say we need
some fertilizer. My mind goes to cow patties and vermi-compost, I
picture ordering some seed meal and azomite (etc.etc) from out of
town, about putting lots of organic substances in a pile and mixing
them up. Another wonders whether Maxicrop or Neptune brand organic all-
in-one liquid would be a more economical buy. And still another will
picture a hose-end spray bottle preloaded with Miracle Grow and their
mind starts searching for the nearest nursery that has it. If there
is a farmer on the committee, then the thought will most likely be
that its simple; just buy a couple bags for 13-13-13.
Steven, you make a really good point about the word organic.
But even that is not enough in some cases. I helped a friend
landscape her front exterior bed and teach her about organic
methods -- the whole nine yards. One one trip she so proudly showed
me the bag of organic fertilizer she had gotten from a box store --
you should have read the ingredient list -- it had Organic blazoned
across the front along with some key organic buzzwords but was chock
full of synthetic chemicals. As a newbie, how was she to know. She
trusted the marketing and the maker. Buyer beware.
Having to define your terms or specify your specific meaning
for a term on the front end can be time consuming but it can
save more time on the back end -- or in the long run. I am not
suggesting we all use "lawyer-ese speak", just some simple specificity.
That makes it more likely that we can create
harmony and enlightenment and those "aha" moments of clarity
instead of contentiousness, confusion, or dis-engagement.
Language is both our salvation and our damnation depending
on how we use it, frame it, present it, define it, and etc.
g
Received on Tue Dec 20 2011 - 18:36:54 EST
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: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 13:58:14 EST