Friday, March 18, 2005

Hmmm...

I guess what I write is not very nice sometimes. The fellow named Joe at the Evangelical Outpost usually does write in nicety, yet not today.

Perhaps it is just one of those days.

3 comments:

mynym said...

I still want to know what people mean by, "Speak the truth in love."

I figured that the way the text would appear would not be nice, specifically me using the terms moral degenerate or Joe making rumblings about fighting and so on.

Nice is one of the terms that is almost just a feeling, just nice! And when anyone begins to write about feelings in an unguarded way they are often communicating more about their own feelings than anything. So if I were to analyze myself, (That's always fun.) I would note that it's a depressing issue at hand, my ribs are smashed from snowboarding and I have a cold, which makes me cough and sneeze, which is just not nice on the ribs....and so on. Mortality is getting me down, including this business about starving someone to death. There has to be a better way.

I saw Michael Shiavo sniveling about things on Larry King and his eyes looked very dead, dead in the head.

mynym said...

To make that make sense....I was probably communicating that I do not feel nice about things today, more than anything.

Although some may quibble over the terms moral degenerates, etc...

mynym said...

Main Entry: nice
Pronunciation: 'nIs
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): nic·er; nic·est
Etymology: Middle English, foolish, wanton, from Old French, from Latin nescius ignorant, from nescire not to know -- more at NESCIENCE
1 obsolete a : WANTON, DISSOLUTE....

This obsolete definition is interesting, to not know, for those for who ignorance is bliss in decadence, how nice! This obsolete definition is the same as the word gay. It used to mean cheery and rather nice, yet it always had a connotation that was used by prostitutes and the like. Then eventually, of course, other sorts of sexual deviants picked up on the term.

(Gay, gai, Gaia, Mother Nature?)

Anyway, on with nice...
2 a : showing fastidious or finicky tastes : PARTICULAR (too nice a palate to enjoy junk food)

5 a : PLEASING, AGREEABLE (a nice time) (a nice person) b : well-executed (nice shot) c : APPROPRIATE, FITTING (not a nice word for a formal occasion)
6 a : socially acceptable : WELL-BRED (from a nice family) b : VIRTUOUS, RESPECTABLE (was taught that nice girls don't do that)
7 : POLITE, KIND (that's nice of you to say)

It seems to me that the term is a positive sort of catch all, a positive judgment, a vague sense of something good or a good feeling. Joe's rumbling about fighting and the like is not "pleasant" or "agreeable."

On Corinthians....that would seem to apply to Christians speaking to Christians, within the Christian body. Of course, Christians are probably supposed to talk to everyone else the same way too, as far as I know.

It seems to me that love ought to soften the truth some and the truth ought to harden up love some. If the truth and love are married, that's the best union.

Generally, I also go by the way that the gospel writers wrote. I.e., the same man who wrote the one phrase also wrote others without contradiction. There seems to have a different pattern of emphasis, depending on the issue at hand.