Speech is Action

(pg. 8)

Speaking is as much an action as hitting someone with a stick, or hugging them [Austin 1962].

This passage goes on to talk about the power of "naming" things to make them so.  I love that but this week (this year), the words above are really speaking to me.  I need to spend more time verbally hugging and less time verbally hitting people with sticks!  :)  I hate it when I hear my voice becoming a weapon . . . it's not a good thing.

I need to focus on channelling my inner Judy Billings -- hers is the hugging voice that I want to emulate (and less of the hitting voice of my mother!!!).

Anyway, my thoughts on this Friday morning.

"Language, then, is not merely representational (though it is that); it is also constitutive. It actually creates realities and invites identities." P.9