Do you know when basketball or soccer players fall to the ground intentionally to try to draw a penalty? But, just like the Griswold’s turkey at Christmas, it can be so overdone that you can’t help shake your head at the display.
We live in a hyper-sensitive time where the line between what’s ok and what’s not is unclear.
Today, a therapist in a Facebook group I belong to asked, “A client broke down when I said the word “mental.” It triggered them. What would be a better word to use, so I don’t upset anyone else?”
Reading the question triggered me.
I just couldn’t wrap my head around wiping a ubiquitous and apt word from a person’s everyday language because of a one-time event.
So I responded: This is one person’s experience relevant to your journey with them. Perhaps discuss why it’s triggering. But changing the word for everyone doesn’t make sense here.
To me, it’s all a flop to get the referee’s attention. But maybe this kind of behavior has little to do with the person and says more of American culture’s polarized covid era’s crazy-perfectionistic black-and-white mindset of how people should act.
The standards are impossible to meet.
I work with a transgender woman who confronts her bigotry towards the transgender population. Because you see, hatred is learned. But just as it is learned, it can be unlearned.
So how about some cheers to unlearning?
Love, Jaclynn
Going On 40 