It’s heavy right now. Our world this week, this month. Before, too.

This short post by Seth Godin resonated for me earlier in the week.

It’s a one-minute read and well worth the time.

The final two sentences:

“The purpose of speech is to alert others to our point of view, and the purpose of conversation is to connect and to persuade.

It’s not clear that making language angrier or more cutting is helping much.”

Certainly my own language has been sharp lately. When considering politics, when considering what seem like antiquated, destructive belief systems. When news brims with injustice and anti-democratic efforts, with misinformation and fear. Folks who seem to look at things in a way categorically opposite to mine.

That’s a tough starting point.

I thought about Seth’s words and wondered what the opposite of sharp language is.

Surely not dull?

And if the opposite of sharp language is not dull, maybe it’s effective. Maybe it’s persuasive.

Because I can say sharp things I know many will agree with. But, most of those words will simply signal outrage and what side we’re lining up on. They tee up the idea there really are exactly two sides to this thing called society. Called humanity. They will signify the divide and not the bridges.

And sometimes it feels good to get it out. Sometimes not. Probably why the data on catharsis as a coping mechanism is mixed, at best.

The antidote to sharp language may not be meeting in the middle, but it probably doesn’t involve shouting across the gap. Hard as that might seem right now.