What do these words have in common? castle, Christmas, fasten, listen, often, whistle, thistle, bustle, hasten, soften, rapport, gourmet, ballet. I see a lot of hands raised, and you are correct! They all have a silent “t”. There are some who may disagree, but if you are pronouncing the t in any of these words you are pronouncing them wrong. What about Christmas? Do you say a ChrisTmas with that T blurting out for all to hear? What about the word Often? Some of you are never really sure what to do about that T. Sometimes you say Of-Ten. Other times you say it correctly, Of - en. The T is not necessary, but some deviant trickster spelled it that way. Whoever put silent letters in words should be banished to a deserted i-land or is it is-land? Okay let’s just banish them to an i-le, no that’s not right. It’s isle, silent s.
We will have to keep dealing with these silent letters. I’m not very good at spelling. They say that many brilliant people can’t spell. Well I don’t fall in that category, but silent letters have been my enemy for many years. I will tell you where this concept would be very helpful and take care of many of society's problems. Let’s call it the Silent Mouth or Silent Tongue. All of us have spoken when we should have kept quiet. We have embarrassed ourselves. We have hurt others either unintentionally or intentionally. Some people just don’t know when to shut up. There are some who don’t have filters on their mouths. They don’t know when it is inappropriate to wag that tongue. There are way too many talk shows where the host and their guests don’t know as much as they think they know, and they speak untruths which are received by people who don’t know any better than to believe them. I could go on and mention politics. There is a lot of wasted verbiage among our government officials beginning in the White House and carrying over to both sides of the aisle in congress. And don’t get me started about religion.
Thumbs down on the silent letters. Thumb up for the Silence of the Mouth.
“Oh be careful little mouth what you say.”
“Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” James 3:4-6
We must be careful and weigh every word we say. A wise man or woman knows when to speak and when to remain silent.
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