All Over the Map

If you will kindly indulge me, I want to point out a couple of features in the side bar.  First of all, if you scroll down and click on the world map, you can see where all the IRL readers live: 139 different countries (if I counted correctly), and all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Armed forces of the Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Canada. 

This is more fun than collecting states on license plates in a National Park.  I am humbled and honored that so many of you actually read what I write. I have to agree with the gal who left me a comment declaring that I have "The Coolest ClustrMap in Blogosphere!” 

Thanks, y’all, for putting dots all over the map.

Secondly, do you see how many different topics I have discussed over the past couple of years?  Those labels are almost embarrassing; I’m all over the map from A to Z.  Man!  (Can you find the new letter I added today?)

Each week I ask myself what on earth I can possibly share with such a diverse group of readers who literally live all over the world.  Usually an idea pops into my head, but sometimes not.  Those are the posts I dutifully and apologetically send to the WOTH editor, and then you amaze me with your comments that are better than what I wrote myself.

This month I am grieving the absence of my dear friend, Cindy, who has stepped down from her position as the editor at Women of the Harvest.  She was the brain behind this blog, my motivator, and creative genius behind all the fun graphics and titles.  Now I am on my own with Cindy on the sidelines providing a dot in Colorado for my ClustrMap.

(In case you missed it, click here to read Cindy’s last “Letter from the Editor.”  You can leave her a note of appreciation there, too, if you like.)

Because this blog takes a bit more time and effort when I can’t fall back on Cindy’s creative juices to pull it together for me and find any grammatical errors, I’d like to appeal to you to provide my occasional blog fodder.  Please?  Is there anything you would like to hear about?  Questions you’d like to pose to this global audience?

I would love to hear from you.  Either leave me a comment below, or feel free to send an email to me at IRL@lokerfam.com with your “Ask Jamie Jo” type questions.

IRL:  Usually seeing red is an indication of an anger issue, but here “seeing red” brings me great joy.  Thanks again!

In case you ever wondered, this is where I am IRL

The "M" Word

Now that I am home in southern Mexico again after a summer of fund raising partnership development, I’d like to continue the discussion from last week on the shift in the English language and how some words are taboo and new ones are deemed appropriate.

We used to laugh at a notorious old linguist here in Oaxaca who would purposely cling to old vocabulary no longer in use.  He would talk about visiting “the tribe” (instead of the language group) and about working with his “informant” (instead of language associate). 

All the while I was snickering at him, some of you were maybe cringing to read all the posts where I continue using the outmoded term “missionary.”

After talking with some women who frankly don’t read this IRL blog, I concede that it’s time I change my vocabulary and clean up my act if I intend to be an encouragement to women of the harvest whose internet connections are not secure, and where eyes might be snooping to see what websites you are accessing.

More and more brave souls are now branching out to work among people whose lives would be in jeopardy if they associated with people known to be (whispered) missionaries.  That alone is reason to tread softly in identifying ourselves with that word.

Another thing is that on the field, the translated equivalent of the “M” word is associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, not necessarily with evangelical “C’s.”  It’s becoming necessary to clear up any confusion there.

This has been an eye-opener for me.  What I envision when I hear the “M” word is not at all what other people see in their minds.  When I was growing up, my heart was tugged to serve God in a radical way outside the U.S. because of stories I heard from missionaries who proudly wore the label missionary.

Nowadays younger recruits are shunning the “M” word in favor of other more relevant terms that are less obvious.  In order to attract these hip new global workers, we should tread softly over the “M” word and start using language that better reflects the work they will be doing overseas.

So, what is the word you prefer?

IRL:  I’m willing to join the young folks and drop the moniker of missionary if someone will just tell me what to call myself now.

Is It Really All Good??

“It is what it is.”  (But can’t it change?)  “It’s all good.”  (I’ve mentioned this one before.  No, it’s not necessarily all good even though you tell me it is.)

These are among other weird sayings of this decade.  I can hear you replying, “I know, right?”  But what do we even call this decade?  I only recently learned that the first ten years of the 2000’s were called the “noughties.”  Really?

For that matter, these past twelve years – and longer – have been about learning English all over again.  After 26 years of gradually introducing new Spanish vocabulary to my mental dictionary, random English words have begun deleting themselves at will.

Do you tend to import words into your English vocabulary from your host country’s language?  In the middle of speaking English back home (in Oaxaca), we use words like “tope” (i.e.:  “Slow down!  There’s a tope up ahead.”) and “bodega” (like “Run out to the bodega and bring me a rake por fa.”)  Oh, and “por fa” as a slang version of por favor.

When I come to the U.S. I find myself stumbling over words I seldom need in English, words I have substituted with Spanish for too many years.  FYI, in case you are wracking your brain like I was, tope is a speed bump in English, and bodega is storeroom.

As if it isn’t enough to tax an unquestioningly aging brain, certain words and phrases I do happen to remember in English are no longer acceptable in polite society.  PC is not a personal computer, as I was once taught, but something to dread and respect.

And as if our teenaged TCKs don’t have enough to worry about “doing wrong” in American culture, now they have to watch what they say.  Just because Mom has always said it back home doesn’t mean it is okay to say in public.  We hypocrites used to tell our children, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  Now we have to add, “…but for heaven’s sake, don’t say as I say; it might not be politically correct any more.”

You probably already know this, but we now call tree-huggers “environmental activists,” while waiters and waitresses are “servers,” and airline stewardesses are “flight attendants.”  Only indiscreet old folks youthfully-challenged people would say differently.

Here are some more PC terms I found on a website too noughty and naughty to recommend here:

Women no longer get PMS; they are now “hormonally homicidal.”

Women don’t gain weight; they are “metabolic underachievers.”

Did you know we must no longer refer to people who can’t read as illiterate?  No, no, no, no, no.  They are non-literate.  I was corrected back in the noughties when I accidentally, thoughtlessly, and carelessly wrote in a prayer letter that we are reaching out to illiterate people.  (If you are among the non-literate people who were offended when you read that letter, I submit my deepest regret and apologies.)

It takes time to erase terms from this worn-out memory bank, so forgive me when I lapse into old lingo no longer deemed appropriate. 

Hopefully by the time we reach the twenties, I’ll have these PC monikers mastered, even though by then we’ll have new slangy idioms like “it was what is was.”

IRL*  It’s not a matter of simply restoring the memory, but upgrading the whole system.