Whatever!
Contemporary dialogue has so switched meanings. We often stammer searching
for words that will say what we feel. But one awful word should be deleted
entirely, along with certain phrases now shockingly acceptable on T Shirts!
The word “whatever”; it is a shrug in contemporary dialogue,
a symbol of withdrawal from accountability, a shabby counterfeit of anger.
I hear myself using it when my plans are rejected or I am confronted with
additional responsibility I don't want to process. OH, WHATEVER, DO WHAT
YOU WANT, I DON'T CARE! That's “whatever.” Marriages dissolve
in infidelity and, surprisingly enough, many such dissolutions come from
the “whatever” of not caring about the matter of faithfulness
(not all, but many). Parents abdicate responsibility with the exasperated
shrug of “whatever.” Leaders, more intent on pleasing than
in leading, make enormous concessions denying integrity. That's “whatever.”
And we stand in the rubble of moral breakdown, destructive chaos, senseless
crime, familial disestablishment and find one marker still intact. Here
lies the result of “whatever.” I am encouraged by the good
news of “Promise Keepers.” I find hope in young people choosing
the narrow road of personal commitment, I delight in those who choose
what is right when it is not popular. Down with “whatever.”
May its tribe decrease. I see its encroachment on the passions of commitment,
in the defining of belief and in the enthusiasm for standards. It's a
low energy word that makes the monogram of faith fade in the wash of apathy.
Because assertiveness has abdicated in a chorus of “whatever”
the battle is now often joined by militant aggressiveness and, what is
worse, great hopes are diverted by the lack of response. The Bible says
for us to do what we do wholeheartedly. That should be the word for our
time. I do what I do because I am convicted by its imperative, not because
it was the flotsam and jetsam of my life's current. I have a treasured
friend, Sharon Morgan; a lovely young woman who has battled through all
sorts of dilemmas and disappointments. The other day she came to me with
her usual serving of encouragement. Often dealing with demeaning circumstances,
aware of the ups and downs of her feelings, she still exercises the option
of positives and in her gentle way maintains lively productivity. As she
left, there was behind her a wake of joy. Without knowing it, she had
muffled the echoes of “whatever” and started the music of
eagerness. Take on the sluggishness of “whatever” with the
reinforcement of faith. And thank God, Who never answers His Children
with the banishment of “whatever.”
Excerpt
from "Jeannette Clift George, From Center Stage"
