Words

I was reading somewhere that within the new "strategic thinking" in the Pentagon, as budgets decline, in growth, if not in absolute numbers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Martin Dempsey, is trying to free up thinking by creating openings by shaking up terminology.  He is right to do so, as once a term gets adopted it labels a lot of activities and allows them to be put into a box and not touched again for a while.  As one person put it,

The Chariman loves terminology debates and fresh thinking from a variety of sources.  He was interviewed in the February 21, 2011 issue of Defense News about fierce and lengthy debates at TRADOC [US Army Training and Doctrine Command] over single words.  Genereral Dempsey responded "I love that" he said, quoting Mark Twain, "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference betwen the lighting bug and the lightning."

And so it is!

Words can be straight jackets, but they can also be a cause for confusion, when one person uses a very good word, intending to convey an idea, but another person, from their frame of reference, takes it to be something else.  I saw it at a meeting last evening, where one word, which could point in several directions, caused us to momentarily and silently stumble, at least twice, until someone recognized that it was being taken to mean different things by different people and stepped up and asked for clarification.  Words matter.

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman

Speak well and prosper.

Regards  —  Cliff