The Times of Illness

I've spent much of the last week doing everything in my power to not get sick. I thought I'd gotten past it, but then this morning, I wake up with a sore throat. And since I have to turn in my admission ticket, and it's only the third meeting of our class, I feel as though I have to drag myself to class, feeling poorly or not. We'll see about tomorrow.

We were prompted this week to write about a tense or embarrassing situation involving language. I decided to talk about how my mom and I can never argue.

Never Argue With Your Mother

An embarrassing or tense situation involving language: the last time I had a discussion/argument with my mother. Since much of my college education was discussion-oriented, I learned to debate and think using language, playing off of others’ comments on a topic. My mother, however, views any conversation involving a difference of opinion as an “argument”, which, in her world, is something awful.

Since my parents and I differ politically and religiously, differences of opinion are inevitable. I will try to explain my viewpoints to my mother, and suddenly we’re arguing about Iraq or how I disagree with certain political stances. For me, this isn’t a problem—it’s just a discussion, right? For my mother, it strikes to the very soul of who she is—disagreeing with her becomes a reflection on her as a parent. She manipulates language to make it fit into this perception. What begins as me wanting to share my beliefs and opinions (and have them respected) ends with me trying to tell my mom that she’s not a bad mother.

I have since learned not to discuss politics or religion with my mom. She just gets too upset, and doesn’t allow my intended meaning to shine through, even if I attempt to explain it. Our ideas of how language interactions should work are too different for us to ever have a meaningful discussion like I have with my fellow students and professors.