Sayings

I have the guilty pleasure of watching First Amendment Auditor videos. As a reminder, the First Amendment to the Constitution protects five core personal freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. Anyway, the people in these videos go out and videotape places to see what reaction they get. Legally, as long as they are on public property (like a sidewalk), they can videotape whatever they can see. When they video a bank, for example, the bank employees often get nervous and call the police.

 But, that isn’t what this devotion is about. The video I watched included an auditor who, as part of their interaction with a police officer, responded with, “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” I hadn’t heard that saying since I was a boy hearing it from my mom, and I wondered where it came from.

 According to Google, “The exact origin is unknown, but it is deeply rooted in American English and gained massive popularity in the early 20th century. It playfully nods to the historical importance of the global tea trade, where the fluctuating price of imported goods was a major, yet highly unrelated, topic of discussion in everyday Western life.”

 I must admit, I had a sigh of relief when I read this. You see, five months ago, I was in a band that played a song where part of it was called cakewalk. The first time we sight-read the song, the conductor apologized that it was named after a slave practice from the past.

 Again, according to Google, “The term ‘cakewalk' originated in the mid-19th century as a competitive dance performed by enslaved African Americans on Southern plantations.”

 I was surprised at this definition. Where I was raised, a cakewalk was a fundraiser in which you paid to walk in a circle for a chance to win a cake. I had no idea, at the time, that the source of the saying meant anything more than that.

 “This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!” - Galatians 5:8-12 ESV

 Using words to communicate is challenging at best. There will be times when the word choice used will upset the hearer. The question is whether it is intentional. A follow-up question is: what are you going to do about it when there is miscommunication?

 A bonus thought I had was those sayings, like parables, help communicate a concept in a way that might be cumbersome with direct words. That is why they are effective.