Article May 4, 1998 Issue

Don't let your tongue get the best of you

There's a sure-fire way to keep from saying something you'll regret.

By Kay Ramsdell Olson

My grandson came home from nursery school and asked my daughter if she knew the song about the sheep named "Barbara." She was puzzled, certain she had heard every nursery school song! So she asked him to sing it. He sang out: "Barbra, black sheep,/Have you any wool?"

This story has gone the rounds in our family and never fails to bring a chuckle. It is an example, innocent and charming in this case, of a misunderstanding.

Misunderstandings caused by words or messages are not always so amusing. Words can be angry, unkind, condemning, even painful. There is a tendency today to discount the effect such rhetoric can have on one another. But we need only see the divisive effect of some political advertisements, or of distortions about people's lives put forth in the media, to see the impact of words.

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