Sunday, October 31, 2010

31 for 21: #30 Simple Words

Sometimes I feel like I live my entire life in some sort of Word-Association game.

We went to a friend's house for a Halloween/football game party last night. We got the the neighborhood and Elise starts asking about "Chips?" Because every time we go to this friend's house, there are chips and dip.

When we have to go to a doctor, there are a lot of one word and sound effect questions, "Beep, beep?", "Ouch?", "Ahhh! and ear?", "Teeth?" Each question is an association to a particular doctor.

If I say we are going somewhere, she starts in on where she'd like to go: "School?", "Books?", "Eat?", "Play?", "Hit ball?" and so on...

Every movie we watch has a particular one word description, every game, toy, or activity does as well.

They are trying to get her to use phrases at school. And when she goes out of her way to use as many words to request something as she can, I really try to say yes, so she decides to makes the association that more words get a more positive result. Sometimes I can't say yes, but I try to.

However, the longer I live with Elise and am subjected to her 20 questions, the more concisely I think. And the more simplistically I am pleased. Sometimes simple is honest. Sometimes simple is best.

"Simple" used to be a term used for people with milder mental disabilities. And after the last 8 years of my life being boiled down to simple and uncomplicated, I don't think that is a negative or misuse of the word. In fact, I wouldn't mind it be a description for myself.

Simple::Pure

Not all bad, huh? :)

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