Dear Crabby,
My wife says I do not express myself very well. She says I need to communicate better with my friends, family, and even my boss about how I really feel about things. I am kind of new at this. Have you ever had trouble expressing yourself?
Sincerely, Bradley Bashful
Dear Mr. Bashful,
Well, I have been accused of many things in my life, but never of not being expressive. I think at one point they even had a picture of me in the dictionary posted next to the word “expressive!” For one thing, we had a much more colorful vocabulary in my day.
Dear Crabby Gives Advice
If I was really astonished about something, I would say something like, “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” And all my friends knew exactly what I meant. Or if I didn’t think something would happen, I would say, “Maybe when pigs fly!” If I was getting mad, I would tell people I was getting “frosted.” Or if I thought someone was no fun to be around, I’d say they were being a “wet rag.” Nowadays I look at how kids are communicating, and all I see are thumbs flying back and forth on little phones and them making faces at a three-inch screen. They hardly even talk, let alone be expressive with each other. The latest trend is to have a “blog,” which I guess is strikingly similar to a “blah,” as in “blah, blah, blah!” These kids will type their little hearts out and record all their jabber for people to search out and find for years to come on the Internet. I am relatively new to this whole Internet thing, but I have been poking around out there and looking at what kids are saying. I did a search for “things that bother you” the other day and found this response from a girl: “big egos, self-centered people, people who act different when around other people just to fit in, flashy people, materialism, liars, conversations where I need to listen, work, me not having a boyfriend …”
I thought, man I don’t even know this girl, but I’m pretty sure I know why that last one is still true! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that the young people today can express themselves so well on the Internet. I just don’t think they realize the full extent that their words will reach. I heard that kids are not getting jobs because some of the human resource people do a simple web search and see these kids doing foolish things on YouTube or read blogs they have written that do not exhibit the character the company is looking for. I think if more people were able to express themselves in the moment like I do, we would have much less guessing and everyone would know exactly what the other was thinking. Now, is that a good thing? That is the question. I guess I will let you make your own decisions and figure this one out. Whatever you do, “don’t flip your wig,” or get all bent out of shape over this – be yourself and use your words.
Sincerely, Dear Crabby
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