Verbiage

We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing – an actor, a writer – I am a person who does things – I write, I act – and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.

-Stephen Fry

There is a difference between you are bad and you did something bad.* One implies you as a whole, the other your behavior. The former leaves little belief that change can be made, after all: If I am bad, how can I ever become good? The latter, on the other hand, leaves plenty of room for improvement; the focus goes from an infinite perspective – you as a whole, to a tangible concrete trait -your behavior. And your behavior is something you can change.. contrary to popular belief, it just requires a bit of effort.

So you see: language and more specifically- grammar is important. It isn’t just quintessential semantic quibbling. Our use of language shapes not only our personal and worldly perspectives, but how we view others and their abilities.

My inspiration to synthesize this piece came from my reading of Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly.

*Quote from the book