This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have been thinking again about “words that matter,” perhaps because I have almost nothing else to do than this and golf while I sojourn for the winter in the California desert.

Here are three words that matter to me:

1.  Helm:  This word is a noun, but it is increasingly used as a verb.  As in a sentence like:  He helmed the meeting.

Sounds stupid to me.

Think of a better verb than helm, which is not a verb.  Try “direct, coordinate, manage,” or others.

•  Incent:  This is a far better verb than the supposed word “incentivize.” 

I always have disliked “ize” or “yze” words.  They sound weird and there usually is a better way.  Think of the supposed word prioritize.  Wouldn’t it be better just to say, “establish what’s most important.”

The most egregious example of the “ize-yze” problem was the time one of my partners used the word “catalyze.”

Say what?

He said the word “communicated.”  I said I had never heard the word before, so how could it “communicate.”

•  They:  This is a plural pronoun that, in some quarters, has come to be used to refer to individuals, not groups, when those inviduals don’t want to be called “he” or “she.”

I guess I understand how this has come to be a society that includes persons who don’t consider themselves to be of one gender or the other.  But, as an old person, I don’t have to like it.

For my part, I intend to continue using “he” or “she.”

Now, in general, as I have said in the past, I believe there are three kinds of people when it comes to how they understand points of view.

1.  Some people like numbers.  Not me.

•  Some people like charts, graphs, and photos.  Not me.

• Some people like words.  Me.

Of course, all of us tend to have parts of the threesome listed above, though we may have favorites such as “words” for me.

Another of my partners in business also liked words and used them well.  But he had a special ability to pare words with charts and graphs.  Far better than me.

He made the charts and graphs illustrate the importance of his words.

I often wished I had that ability.

But, I’ll stick with words.  That’s what I know best.