Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Letter to the Editor from December 27 Hampshire Gazette

To the editor:
In a recent Gazette article, someone who was interviewed said, "you kill two birds with one stone." While I'm all for participating in one activity that has several positive outcomes, I dislike this saying that celebrates the killing of birds for no apparent reason. I realize that this phrase is part of our language and our culture; and that we often use this saying without giving much thought to the violent image that it evokes. There is so much violence in our world. Could it be that some of that violence originates in our language, in the words we choose to use with each other every day?
For the past several years, I have used the phrase "feed two birds with one seed." I have noticed that when I say it that way, both the person I'm speaking to and I smile in mutual enjoyment both of the transformation of the old phrase and of the new, nurturing image. Basically, it makes us feel good. And so, I offer this new saying to my community in the hopes that some of you will use it because you resonate with what I'm trying to do: to bring more consciousness, more peace, and more life to the language that we share.
A friend recently said to me, "It's no skin off my back." I've been working on transforming that one, too. So far, all I've come up with is "it's no snow off my igloo." It's a work in progress. I'll keep you posted!

Sharon Rudnitzky
Haydenville


BODO

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HAH. You should send this to http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com-
I think Larry Kelley would appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Did you know that that expression also exists in Japanese as 一石二鳥? It's true--it often makes me wonder whether both languages came up with it independently or whether one got it from the other.

ATL said...

Or: "It's no food off my plate."

Or: "It's no hair off my chest."

HAH.

Anonymous said...

Moogster--Whoa, I wonder how widespread that phrase is. Maybe it comes from the Eurasiatic mother tongue.