the right word
I sit here making notes of what I need to do,
one thing that is needed is to find some people
to sit at an information table,
to distribute literature,
to answer questions,
to give a personable face to the event of Friends Fest,
to the reality of CFS and its 60th anniversary,
my first idea of a verb is to "man" the table,
but that is so gender-sounding
that it feels offensive,
yet no other word I can yet call up works as well:
people the table?
person the table?
run the table?
staff the table?
wait, that sounds close to what I want,
I can get flummoxed that the simple ease
of a three letter word that conveys
being there for others,
for helping out,
for connecting well with visitor and event,
can't be used because of its baggage,
no alternative easily appears,
the connotations frustrate me,
it takes time and effort to evolve the language
to match the evolution within our hearts and minds,
we don't want our words to perpetuate our biases,
the "fix" is important,
the "fix" is not yet easy,
maybe I need someone to "staff" a committee
to move us forward?
by Henry H. Walker
March 15, ‘25
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