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Mon 14 Mar, 2011 01:54 pm
I always have a mild, but controlled annoyance when I hear groups of people reduced to some dumbed down or neutered "correct speak"
"I'm not employed here, I'm a 'teammate'!"
"I'm not a sales person, I'm an 'account executive', or 'an associate'."
Etc.
However, this last one I just heard really gripes my ass.
It seems that there is a "culture change" going on in some nursing homes, where the old people who live there, the residents (the same as I am the resident of the city I live in) are being encouraged to call themselves....excuse me while a throw up in my mouth a little...."neighbors"
Are we trying to take away the last vestige of dignity and self-determination people past a certain age still valiantly cling to?
Neighbor my ass. You want me to call myself a neighbor because neighbors are friendly and get along. Neighbors don't complain about things at the risk of being unfriendly.
Screw that. I'm living here now, you work here. This is MY culture and you need to get used to it. I'm 80 years old and I'll complain all I want if something's not right, until it's made right.
I'll tell YOU what to call me, not the other way around.
@chai2,
How do I deal with being called an orange uncircumcised asian with Sláinte eyes? Considering I'm none of the above.. lol
@Ceili,
I don't know, but if I catch you wandering into my room again, I'm throwing my walker at you.
@chai2,
Well, actually, I am uncircumcised but the fact remains...
Walker?? I thought you had a big stick!
@chai2,
where's my teef.
who stole my goddang teef...
neighbors need fences.
@chai2,
Hear, hear!
Soon but for the grace of dog we may be there too. Oh, wait.. my neighbor is a TROLL. She has orange cheekbones and yammers repetitively. Me, I still have my vocabulary. Wanna play scramble? Scrabble, that's it. It's MY TURN.
Seriously.
I think this really hit a nerve with me because I worked in 2 different nursing homes for a few years, and so much appreciated what I learned from so many of these elders.
The things I learned about what many of them went through in life. Who they are, what holds meaning, and just as important what no longer hold meaning was so powerful.
For instance, I totally cannot see farmerman, rockhead, dj, among others letting someone encourage them to call themself that. For a man especially, it would take something from them.
Neighbor isn't a bad word, it's a good one....for you to choose to use or not, toward the people you feel neighborly toward.
@Rockhead,
Rockhead wrote:
where's my teef.
who stole my goddang teef...
neighbors need fences.
You probably left it on your food tray, and it's been thrown out and lost forever. They're not going to pay for another set, because you should have looked after your stuff better.
You're screwed.
@chai2,
It's a quite a creative euphemism. I can see how making it a mandatory label can rile up the blood a bit.
Of course, one can dress it up with adjectives like bloody or nuissance.
Nurse: what do you think of your 'neighbor' Jack?
resident of room 666: My nuissance neighbor Jack? I try not to think of him at all! What a whining pisser of a lamb!
@chai2,
you be a neighbor, I'll be a vegetable.
cuz that's what I'll be if I'm in one of those joints...
I used to throw the newspaper in a government hi-rise.
those old folks hated each other.
and it took all day to collect from them, because each one looked forward to my visit...
@chai2,
won't you be my neighbour
@Rockhead,
Rockhead wrote:
I used to throw the newspaper in a government hi-rise.
those old folks hated each other.
I say no **** sherlock to that rocky.
"You're tellin' me I have to be neighborly with that awful Mildred Tupplewire?
She boomed in her panties the other day and just sat in it."
10 10 10, 3 4 5 6, 2 2 2 GIN you jackwagon
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