Natural Nature

As a parent, I want my children to grow up understanding that God created the world and everything in it. As I take my daughter for a walk down the street, I often say things like, "What a cool tree that God made!"

Then I stop to consider something: Did God really create the same tree that I see today? Not really. He created an ancestor of that tree, and the seeds of the original trees have reproduced enough times to have a tree today. Furthermore, the trees of today are not in the same place that the original trees were. Many of today's trees were planted by people. People have chosen when and where to plant them, as well as watering them and trimming their branches.

Obviously, trees are part of "nature", but I draw a distinction between nature that is maintained by people and nature that is maintained by God. I enjoy seeing a well-maintained garden, but something inside me get even more excited about walking through a forest that has not been altered by human impact. I get equally excited about other areas of "natural nature", such as mountains, oceans, and the planets.

Very, very, very, very, very, very...

One of my pet peeves is when someone uses the same word more than twice to emphasize their point. This seems to happen a lot with the word "very" and the word "never". Using a long repetition of adverbs does not really emphasize their point over using one or two. To me, it even seems counter productive because I lose my focus on their train of thought and instead start thinking, "I wonder when they'll stop saying 'very' and get on with their sentence".

Using a word multiple times also seems to decrease the power that it has. If something "never" happens, it happens zero times. There is no need to say "never, never, never". If you do, you are implying that one "never" is not enough; instead, you are afraid that people might interpret one "never" to mean "seldom". This really robs the word "never" of its true meaning. If one "never" has the power to accomplish the same as five "never"s, it has its full power.

When people use multiple adverbs like "very" and "never", there seems to be an emotional affirmation beneath the words. However, I think it is best to verbalize this emotion with phrases like "I never want to _________, and I feel strongly about this because ________". This approach gets to the reason for the emotion, and sharing this reason can help others to appreciate the emotions better.

As social beings, we communicate with others constantly. As we do, it is important to consider how our messages is received by them. Take a moment to consider how well you communicate to others. Do you often find that your audience has difficulty understanding you or agreeing with you? If so, what are some steps you could take to communicate more effectively?