I want to write about the word repose, but I'm too tired right now.
I've been attending too many long, exhausting, emotional meetings full of people on the verge of meltdown whose valid concerns keep being met by soothing buzzwords. I've just gotten accustomed to being told that it's not yet time to elevate our concerns to the next level, as if we could just punch the Up button and everything would be taken care of, and now comes a Person in a Position of Authority repeatedly telling a group of campus leaders that we need to find repose in the situation, which makes me wonder whether some major donor has come through with the funds to install futons in all our offices. I mean, I'm as big a fan of repose as the next guy, but if the building is on fire, the last thing you want the firefighters to tell you is Why don't you calm down and take a nice nap?
And speaking of the next guy, I've heard that it's problematic to address students as guys, which makes some sense if they're not all guys, but I've just used the word guy to refer to myself, which suggests that I don't really conceive as guys as gendered, which explains why I'm having a hard time not addressing groups as guys. Old dog/new tricks, blah blah blah. But I'm trying! I asked a class how they'd like to be addressed and someone suggested pupils, which makes me think of Mrs. Davis back in third grade, with her white hair piled high and gems on her glasses and a hanky tucked up her sleeve. I may be old, but I'm not ready to be Mrs. Davis. I'll never find repose until I elevate that concern to the next level--but wait, where's the Up button?
3 comments:
I got the “guys” comment from my students when I first moved to Texas. I grew up in Southern California, where “guys” was a fairly common gender-free term for addressing a group. It took a while to get used to “y’all” so I switched to “folks,” which served the same purpose but didn’t annoy my students.
"Folks" is nice. Sometimes I call address my Honors Lit students as "Odysseans" (because the course focuses on various types of odysseys), but that's a special case. One of these days I'll give up and call everyone "Hey, you." Or y'all, as the case may be.
I'm also a fan of "folks" as it is sufficiently casual yet non-gender-specific. I always used to use "ladies and gentlemen" but I'm trying to break myself of that as well.
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