Every word you use to argue with your parents, they taught you one syllable at a time.

GRATITUDE

WHAT THIS MEANS

The tools you use to push away from someone were often handed to you by that person. Language arrived one syllable at a time from people who were patient about it long before you could use it against them. That is not an argument for never disagreeing. It is a strange and useful fact about where your capacity to disagree came from.

Next time an argument at home is heating up, hold that for a second before you speak. It tends to lower the volume without requiring you to give up your point. Being right and being cruel are separate decisions.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which words do you aim at the people who taught them?

MORE IN COMMUNICATION & LANGUAGE

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