Have you ever given thought to the way that you talk to people? I don’t mean having good manners or whether or not you are nice to people. I am talking about the things you do and say… or the things you do when you say certain things…
Example: The other day I was talking to my step daughter about eye brows. (Don’t ask why… you really don’t want to know… OK I’ll tell you. Mine are a little crooked… new girl at the salon. Boo!)
Anywhooooo… While I was talking I kept pointing to my eyebrows. Like she wouldn’t know what I was talking about if I wasn’t pointing at them. Duh… she knows what an eye brow is, but I couldn’t say it without pointing. Weird. I was talking to my husband about a mixing bowl when I was baking something. I kept lifting it up to show him like he didn’t know what a mixing bowl is.
I don’t think people are stupid, gosh no! But maybe I have in my subconscious somewhere that if a person can see what I am talking about, they have a better chance of understanding.
And it’s not just with objects!
After the eyebrow incident, I started paying attention to how I was saying things. I especially notice it when I read to Zoie. If you have read Are You My Mother as many times as I have, you may know exactly what I am talking about.
There is inflection in my voice. When I say up, my voice goes high. When I say down, my voice goes low. Why is that? Everyone uses inflection when they speak, don’t they? But the pointing… do you ever catch yourself doing the same thing??
Now I probably won’t change the way that I speak. I may, however, stop the pointing. I wonder if it makes people feel dumb? I don’t know. What are your thoughts?
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