The Gift of Gab

“The human tongue is a beast few can master.”  We say things at one point in our lives and say something different at another point.  Sometimes we say one thing and do another.  Sometimes our words come back to bite us or to haunt us.  Sometimes we talk out of both sides of our mouth.  Sometimes we have to eat our words admitting that something we have said was wrong.  Sometimes we speak with a “forked tongue,” deliberately saying one thing and meaning something else.  Sometimes we do “double-talk” saying things that it is impossible for another person to understand by using unintelligible words intentionally.  We’ve all had slips of the tongue, saying something by accident when we intended to say something else. We’ve all talked empty words, words that convey no meaning to either ourselves or others.  Sometimes we “beat around the bush” and sometimes what we say “hits the nail on the head” (but not often).  

What we say and what we are heard to say are often two different things.  Our words can be twisted around, taken out of context, misunderstood, or misinterpreted, which is the excuse we often use for what we say.   Maybe the wisest thing any of us can do is to stop saying anything, but then, how could we ever live, or love, or be human?  Talking is a great gift—one of the most powerful gifts of humankind.  Beating our gums, chewing the fat, flapping our lips, having diarrhea of the mouth or running off at the mouth, having the gift of gab, shooting the breeze, a loose tongue,  spilling the beans, spitting it out, is a huge part of what it means to be human.

We typically ascribe this “talk” to our politicians or to media pundits, but the truth is such “talk” is part and parcel of all humanity—the forked tongue, the double-talk, the empty words, the words of love and care—are our gift, too!  Lindsey Graham talked about the process of impeachment back in 1999, saying, “You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if this body determines your conduct as a public official is clearly out of the bounds of your official role.  Because impeachment is not about punishment.  Impeachment is about cleansing the office.  Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”  His words come back today to bite him, but so do my words in years gone by come back to bite me.  By golly, I guess that means that our politicians are human beings just like the rest of us, saddled with the human tongue—a beast few of us can master.