One
of my responsibilities at The High Calling is serving as Twitter editor, and at
the rertreat I livetweeted the speakers. If you’ve ever livetweeted before, and
particularly when a speech or discussion runs an hour or more, you know you
have to pay close attention to the speaker’s words. Livetweeting is not a
verbatim transcription, but it’s close. (If you’re interested, you can read the
entire retreat Twitter stream – the hashtag is #hcretreat.)
At
the November High Calling retreat at Laity Lodge in the hill country of Texas,
one of the speakers was Marilyn McEntyre,
professor of Medical Humanities at the University of California (UC) – Davis and the Joint Medical Program of UC-Berkeley
and UC-San Francisco. The author
of five books of poems and books on poetry, how to read a text, reading, and
teaching literature and medicine, she was there to talk with us about how to be
a steward of words.
Words
need stewards? Yes, indeed they do, McEntyre said. Language is a gift, a
treasure, and we hold it in trust.
I
livetweeted both of McEntyre’s presentations. In a sense, I was channeling what
she was saying. I was so drawn in that at the first break I downloaded to my
Kindle the book she was drawing upon – Caring
for Words in a Culture of Lies. I finished reading it before the end of
the retreat.
It’s
a wonderful book, published in 2009 and based on lecutes she gave at Princeton
Theological Seminary. McEntyre cares deeply about language and words, and how
we misuse both. She particularly faults the language of marketing and the
language of public discourse for confusing, disguising intent, and
misappropriating language for their own ends. She also discusses how words fall
into disuse, left forgotten in old novels and essays, their meanings obscure.
But
instead of a book of complain and expose, she instead offers twelve strategies
for how to reclaim words and language, how to be good stewards of words. Each
strategy has its own chapter.
Love
words. Tell the truth. Don’t tolerate lies. Read well. Stay in conversation.
Share stories. Love the long sentence (a favorite chapter – with suggestions on
how to read Faulkner). Practice poetry. Attend to translation. Play. Pray.
Cherish silence.
 |
| Marilyn McEntyre |
At
the retreat, we had the benefit of engaging in a series of exercises that
provided examples of what McEntyre means when she says we are to be stewards of
words. Many of them centered on poetry, suggesting that the practice of poetry
may be more practical than most people think.
If
I have a quibble with her presentations and the book, it is a minor one – it’s
too easy these days to criticize how corporations and government abuse language
(and they do). And it’s too easy to overlook some of the worst abusers of
language – like universities, speech codes designed to ensure no one is
offended by anyone saying anything, the news media, and the education
establishment. (When I spent time as the communications director for an urban
school district, I learned very early to be immediately suspicious of anyone
who promoted themselves or their agendas by talking about “it’s for the good of
the children.” That was a code phrase – and it meant that what was being said
really had nothing to do with the good of the children.)
My
minor complaint aside, the book is full of value, not only for writers and
speakers but also for anyone who cares about language. It’s especially important
for writers, though, and as I looked around the room at the retreat, I saw
writers furiously taking notes.
And
it was a double delight to hear McEntyre speak in a quiet voice full of passion
for her subject, and follow with reading Caring
for Words in a Culture of Lies.
