Feelings
Sugar-coatings!
By Emmanuelle
Surely, our penchant to sugar-coat almost all things unpleasant, so as not to seem unpleasant, shall get us as near as can be to being guilty of duplicity. Duplicity meaning dishonesty, deception, unfaithfulness, fraudulence. At worst, duplicity in this sense signals a defeat of the original purpose of language, which is communicating the exactness of concepts, thoughts, feelings.
Filipinos are not guilty of this alone. Other races, third world or Big Brothers, have this inclination to apply euphemism over words, events, situations that sound disagreeable to the ears, nasty to the tongue, improper to society, cruel or outrageous to the imagination or just simply morbid. To the embarrassingly naive, that is what euphemism exactly means: the substitution of a milder or less direct expression for one believed to be offensive or harsh.
Thus, the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the lame and the mentally deficient are now rarely called the handicapped but disabled or people with disabilities. Maybe because the word handicapped suggests a helplessness that is not suggested by the word disabled. And also, maybe because the word handicapped has its origin in the phrase hand-in-cap actually meaning a game of chance, but somehow mistakenly brings to mind the image of a beggar. And the handicapped are definitely not beggars. We have met more able-bodied men and women with their pride burning holes in their bellies, route entreaties of mercy on their lips.
The disadvantaged are the poorest of the poor, the most bottom of the bottom-of-the-pyramid, persons or families lacking the normal or usual comforts of the necessities of life. And taong-uling does not refer to a person who sells coal for a living, or someone who works in the coalmine which we do not have in this country no matter how uling-dependent we are, with our barbecued pork turning into little porklets, chicken gizzards, other innards, and hooked toes calling for you, curling witchily.
The taong-uling is a non-entity who had turned a disdainful back on society and sanity, combing the streets of the cities, black shirt-black short-on-blackened skin, sleeping on sidewalks or blending into shadows.
Some writers waxing poetic use the phrase: the great unwashed. I would prefer to use: the grit unwashed. Grit referring to sand or gravel. Unwashed grit, get it? Surely I do not refer to firmness of character or grinding teeth together in firm determination? As in a Feelings story titled True Grit years ago.
And coitus, sexual intercourse, copulation are strictly no-no-no to decent company, the use of these words strictly confined to medical school or books. So cover the ears, shut the eyes, wash the mouth with soap, run-from the room, and lock yourself out. You are censored, buzzered out.
It is making love. Though sometimes, love has got nothing to do with the whole lusty process.
Take a breather, dear. The wind blows fresh and a brisk walk will do you good. When someone gives this advice, it means: paway ka ni amo. Aliwa lan maong so panunot mo.
Listen to the duplicity in the euphemism. And close the door softly on your way out.
(Readers may reach columnist at jingmil@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/feelings/
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