Thursday, January 26, 2006

One of the Lowest Capacities on this Earth…

This is my “second part” to my previous post asking for my readers to paint me a picture of what is meant when someone is referencing an individual or a behavior or an action as “trashy” or “trash.”

Let me tell the story of how this two-part blog come into being…

Late Monday night I was lying in bed and I don’t remember what I was thinking about, but it hit me that I really wanted to write a blog about people using the term “trash” as an adjective. I’ve wanted to write this type of a blog on several occasions, but the route I wanted to take with the blog was a hard one to get myself to write.

I whipped out the notepad I keep in my nightstand and in the dark scribbled down some thoughts to remind myself in the morning about this blog idea. Believe it or not, I do this MANY nights. I used to get up every time the ideas would hit me, but now I’ve simply gotten too lazy to get out of bed each time, so I put a notepad in my nightstand by my bed…try it…you might get a lot of use out of it like me! ;)

So all day Tuesday I found myself debating within myself whether or not THIS was the time I would follow through and write this blog. By the time I got home that night to write it, I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to. So that was going to be that….no blog…

Later in the night I had the privilege to get to talk to one of my best friends on the phone. Like always we were just chatting away, having a good time, talking about our days. It was then that she had mentioned something she had seen on her drive home that evening and she referenced it as “trashy.” That’s when it hit me…I had to write this blog, but NOT before I let my passion out about the subject with my friend.

I can only recall a couple other times I can remember getting as fired up about this passion in the past, but I have. It is one that has been with me for several years now. Sometimes I’ll just blow the comments off by others, sometimes I’ll make a comment back, and on certain occasions I will debate my opinion full force—Tuesday night was one of those nights. And yes, with a best friend.

As I got off the phone, I was pretty fired up about my belief on this topic. I was in no way mad or upset with my friend, but we obviously had different opinions on the matter.

So there I was. Full of passion. Yearning to get at my keyboard and take out the passion in a blog, but I refused to let myself. I knew I needed to think it out in order to get the best results that I wanted from my purpose of sharing my thoughts on the matter….

So I took a shower to think it out…

When I got out, I was determined to keep back my opinion and get your thoughts first. I wanted honesty. I wasn’t sure exactly how to put the entry in order to get the most honest and unbiased answers, yet still in a way to actually GET people to respond.

Though the responses I was really wanting, and I’m still pretty sure they DO exist did not necessarily show up, I can’t help but say I was amazed by the responses I DID get.

And actually, after I got the responses I got, I’ve totally revamped what was going to be said in this “second part.”

Though it was not my initial plans, I think the first half of this blog actually served as what I was wanting to do with this second half, and that was to get people to reconsider the use of “trash” in reference to human beings. Though I thought it was a nice point, I think the line of, “if we are going to use the term we need to know what it means” served more of a purpose than I had hoped. I think when we really think about what we are saying and what it truly means, we are all capable of reevaluating our thoughts, and I think that was exactly what some people did then they read that last blog.

I want to end this blog with a calm, shortened version of my passion on this matter:

I’ve never liked the term “trash” being used as an adjective. And as my friend has asked me on the phone, I can confidently say I can not ever remember using the term in such a manner [I do credit this to my passion on this matter].

As Holly pointed out in comment on the previous blog, my view on this matter has always been how is it that we can liken someone to something as low as trash. Trash, in reference to what is picked up by the garbage-man, is denoted by our society as one of the lowest capacities on this earth. Garbage is the last on our lists of things that matter. Trash is worthless. Trash is what’s thrown out. “A. Lo” made a great point on the previous blog about how trash is “easily disposed of.”

I just can not allow myself to call another human being “trash” when actual trash is as low as our society has made it.

I can’t tell anyone what to do or not to do, but I can say this…

There is that old saying that says “what is someone's trash might be someone else's treasure.”

Join me in making what someone else might reference as “trash” or “trashy” a treasure to us. As different or strange someone else’s ways or someone else as a person might be, they have something about them that is worth treasuring!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I think everyone has a different meaning for the word trash. There is a guy who has a pretty well-known blog (it's called Velcrometer) who calls his wife Trash -- not as an insult, but as a name. He clearly loves her very much, and it seems to be said with affection.

Ellison said...

So, my new resolution is to refer to things as "white treasure" or "their yard looks like treasure" or "she dresses so treasury."

I'll admit, I've used the words "white trash," or "she's dressed so trashy." I apologize to all those it has offended and I will try to do better. I feel very degrading and uneducated. Surely I can come up with a better word than trashy. Thank you Kim.