In a Manner of Speaking

In a manner of speaking, everyone can be what he or she wants to be but you…you…you are the proverbial Caesar’s wife…you must be above suspicion. You must speak so that your words hurt none. You must behave so that your actions hurt none. You must at least make sure that you do not react to anything anyone says or does (or even thinks). Even if it hurts you a bit, or a little more than just a bit, or insults you big time and perhaps wants to make you shout so loud and so desperately that you want to scale the tallest tower in the vicinity or at least the tallest tree and let out a scream to provide the much needed release to your lungs (and soul!) and let everybody know how you feel…oh no, that option is not for you. You must be, in a manner of speaking, perfectly, politically correct in the most polished possible way.

And here you are, so plainly you, so blatantly blunt, not aspiring for the lofty heights of the painfully prosaic and mythical political correctness. So what are you going do you do? “Sharpen, up”, says a little thing. Sharpen eh? But sharp would hurt more wouldn’t it in a literal manner of speaking? Now that’s a thought—blunt as opposed to sharp—what’s the choice? Blunt wouldn’t kill you would think. Sharp is what would sting you think. The choice is your’s, everybody else around gets to punish you anyway they like anyway, for your verbal transgressions, your irate expressions—anything will be meted out to you from the icy cold shoulder or the ridiculously raucous smses. In a manner of speaking, why is it that everyone expects you to be the epitome of perfection while you see no proactive efforts on their part to attempt the same? Ah! Did you overlook the fine print…they have a right to just be themselves—so sensitive that they must express their emotional reactions to your actions. They believe however, that you lost your’s when you decided to lose your way and cross their paths.

But what do you believe in? You have the right to be you…do you? Then be so, you can’t make everyone happy…in a manner of speaking. You still need to do the decent thing bit, is it? Then, be yourself and do the decent bit and from your point of view, in a manner of speaking, that makes the others an ‘indecent’ lot…

“…So in a manner of speaking
I just want to say
That like you I should find a way
To tell you everything
By saying nothing…”*

*In a Manner of Speaking, Depeche Mode