~ XMAS ~

OMG. I h8 dat ppl lyk hw txt vocab hz tkn ovr.

Ugh. I couldn’t even get through that without cringing. Let’s talk shortcuts. People use them all the time. They’re efficient, speedy, and get the point across–when you’re not trying to decipher what it is a person is trying to say. Text speak is so commonplace now that it has spilled over into spoken dialogue. It’s as though people have lost the art of fine conversation, of eloquence.

I’m not against this method. Not really. It has its merits when in a time crunch, but imagine (and this has happened to me) you send a meaningful text to someone and you get this as a response:

K. Tnx.

I don’t know about you, but it comes off as cold and insincere. It’s probably an exaggeration, as one cannot truly interpret a text with one hundred percent accuracy. Case in point: Ten people read one book. You end up with ten interpretations of the book. Sure there might be some similarities but each person has their own perspective.

Back to shortcuts. Words start to lose meaning. Conversations become archaic. Speech, as it once was, dies off. True, as with most things, there is an evolution in the way we communicate. Consider how far we’ve come since the smoke signal.

I suppose in the hectic pace we travel through life–i.e. taking on write-a-paloozas and other challenges of epic proportions–we tend to forget that old saying. Perhaps we should stop and smell the roses (for those who aren’t allergic). It’s good to appreciate the simpler things in life, things you might not necessarily notice while stuck in overdrive.

This week had a gamut of emotions. Happiness, love, loss, anger, frustration, mourning, relief. In times like these, it’s always good to slow down, take the scenic route as it were. Say thank you and mean it. Show acts of kindness to people you know and to people you don’t. Tell your family you love them. Forgive those who’ve wronged you, even if its in your own heart. We go through life at such breakneck speed, we sometimes forget what’s important. Another case in point: XMAS. We’re almost halfway through the year. Soon Christmas carols will be blasting on the radio and through every mall PA system. Where has the time gone? This is the blog post for the letter X. I can’t believe we’ve gone through twenty-four letters already, yet here we are.

Yes, my theme word might have been a shortcut in itself. X isn’t the easiest letter of the alphabet to blog about. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of X-Files, X-Games, Xylophone, Xenophobe, Xenophile, and the like. However, my theme topic links back to previous posts, of Ferris Bueller, of raging against the dying of the light, of miles to go before I sleep, of being more awesome. There’s so much life to live, we need to make every moment count. Every word. Every letter.

C, itz impt bcuz itz nt jst abt txt, ryt? Itz rly abt lyf, al2gthr.

So, as to maintain the levity of this blogging challenge, while respecting the poignancy, I close with this:

=8=

Today’s theme is brought to you by the letter