Exaggeration, hyperbole and just plain over dramatic!

One day walking into the kitchen, I see my old roommate Jose wiping down the counter. He says to me “This counter is disgusting!” And my first thought is “Is it really that bad?”

People, seem to use such extreme language for common, mundane and ofter inconsequential events. I, for one, am starting to get annoyed with it. Not enraged or furious, just annoyed. When people exaggerate deliberately it's called lying but people speaking with phrases like “the best ever” and “you won't believe” have become the standard mode of communication. No deception is intended, but the true nature of the matter is over stated.

Why do I what this to change? I think that these vivid words have been abused and have lost the responsive value they use to have. If we choose to use more appropriate language for every given situation as oppose to the big, dramatic over the top style that's become so common to us, we'd have a better grasp of degrees of emotion.

I have a hard time deciding what is the appropriate level of emotional response to most things I'm unfamiliar with. The worst of these is with love. I've had a few conversations about the range of emotions involved in different states and depths of relationships. One frequent piece of advise I've been given is to control and not be controlled by my emotions. That's difficult to achieve when you feel verbally assaulted with harsh language that would make a marriage councilors “trigger words” list.

The other reason I care about correct language is because I love the many shapes and forms and colors that human emotion comes in. There so little depth in extreme language if it's the only form of description you use. When some one posts about waking up late for work, then locking their keys in the car, the phrase “worst day ever” will come up. When I think about my worst day ever it's probably the day my grandmother died. See the difference? I want every body to express themselves but there needs some standard of proportion for any of it to have an effect.

Sound track for love.

"You move like I want to. To see like your eyes do"-Deftones

  The virginity song. It's an older concept but the phrase I had just stumbled on to today. The song you were listening to/thinking of the first time you had sex. Or for those of us who still hold their v-cards what song would you want as a theme to that particular event. The point is nostalgia and an inference of your feelings at the time. Plus, a sound track for our lives needs a fitting song, even the most intimate parts.

For me, still having yet to cross that thresh hold, the song I would like to hear would be “Digital Bath” by the Deftones. If your familiar with it, you know the song (and half of the whole White Pony album) is directly about sex,. Unlike the songs Fur elisia (kidnapping), Stay (necrophilia), Change (new found freedom in sex, drugs and partying corrupting you) and Passenger (exhibitionism) there is more then just sexual desire in the subject matter. There are elements both lyrically and tonally which demonstrate enchantment with the woman, expressing how she's different and she effects everything happening around her in a fascinating way. The one line chorus “tonight I feel like more” isn't subtle, but it doesn't need to be. You hear passion, desire, magic and even a little sadness in this song. You could call it sensual more than sexual. It doesn't get vulgar or forceful even at the full crescendo and the ending is like an exhale after holding a short breath.

  For my more personal reasons to pick this song, the album came out right around that first year of puberty. Not the best time of my life but it was the period where I started establishing my musical preference and by extension, my identity. In 6^th and 7^th grade, most days I would come home, go to my room, put my head phones on and listen to music. Some times for hours, just laying there listening. White Pony was one of the first albums I had, most of the time I listened to the radio, and there was a point where I knew every note of every song except for “Pink Maggot” the last song which cut of because it was a boot-leg copy. It became the sound track for sneaking cigarettes, ditching classes, skateboarding and of course preteen fantasies. As an adult, a lot of the elements of those days have soured or just faded but “Digital Bath” is still a fawned, treasured and slightly missed piece of my growing up.