Just as I was trying to be nicer, friendlier and more tolerant of others, I've been confronted with another linguistic annoyance. OK, first a bit of context.
I have now met two life coaches, and have chatted with them. When I say "met", I mean that I have made their acquaintances. I was not consulting them for life direction. While talking to both life coaches, I noticed that they used the word "piece" in an unusual and annoying way. Here are some examples:
"You can't really move forward in the career piece, if you haven't faced the spiritual piece."
"Once I had examined the body piece, I was able to move forward in the relationship piece."
"The work/life balance piece is central."
Where does this annoying "piece" business come from? Is there some kind of puzzle metaphor they study in life coaching school?
Here are some better uses of piece:
piece of cake
piece of chocolate cheesecake
piece of ass
piece of broken remote
piece of crap
piece of my grandmother's china
6 comments:
I concur with your objection to that (mis)use of the word, ma'am.
Rather too many people, I think, tend to try to deal with big, hairy complex things by breaking them up (or down) into, uh, pieces they think they understand.
There are problems with this, I think. One is that when you break something apart like that because you don't understand it, how the hell do you know you're disassembling it properly and not damaging it?
Another is that in doing so, one tends to ignore the important, but often overlooked interstitial glue of one's life -- stuff that may be overlooked or undefinable, but that turns out to hold everything together at a very basic level.
This doesn't even get into how regarding a life as 'pieces' ignores the far-more-important Big Picture, which should not necessarily be broken up (or down).
Just Not Very Zen, is it?
Death to Life Coaches, I say! With, uh, all due respect...
Addendum: Does this mean we'll be charged with 'Disturbing the Piece'?
Hahahahahaha!
Might I suggest that you introspect, take a moment aside, and try to understand why you despise the apparent misuse of the word piece so much. Does it threaten you? Or is it simply a convenient distraction that helps to avoid considering the implications of what these coaches are really saying??
Or you can ignore this piece of blather.
As an aside, I used to have what i called my own "piece" theory. I've heard bits of it over the years, but the jist is that everyones personality and physical presence on this planet is made up of pieces. Some unique, most shared, people are simply made up of hundreds/thousands/millions of distinct pieces. It became most apparent when you could look at two people, recognize commonalities (typically in mannerisms), and conclude they shared a piece. Physical commonalities being the most obvious, i never ventured into deciding when people shared personality pieces.
I like piece of crap the best!!! Its a piece of crap PIECE OF CRAP!!!
Aggie...let this be a lesson. Don't associate with life coaches, even if only on an "acquaintance" level, never-mind to consult them professionally.
Also, never again try to deny your inner "piece," my dear. That is, why try to be nicer, friendlier and more tolerant, when you have to try at all? Just be your dear, curmudgeonly self. It's perfect!
Agatha, I hate to see you get so upset over these things. But I should not pass judgment and possibly interfere with your process.
If you should ever hire one of these life coaches, I suggest that you ask them to say "slice" instead of "piece".
p.s. I am interested in your answers to Bob's questions.
Oh, Bob. I love the way you challenge me! I bet that if I worked on the intimacy piece, I would be able to answer your questions.
"Disturbing the piece"/"Inner piece" -- you guys are just so clever...
And Coyote: I love that you use words like "interstitial".
4th Dwarf: Thanks for not interfering with my process. And, I will suggest "slice" -- Example: "We need to work on the body image slice before we can move on to the shagging slice." HA!
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