Simplify, simplify

There's a great t-shirt/bumper sticker going around that says simply, "Eradicate Obfuscation!" If only we would.

Whether it's to sound more important and smarter, to obscure their actual meaning, or some other reason, too many today are using words and phrases that make it very difficult to understand what they're saying. TV meteorologists don't predict that it will snow anymore, instead they issue a "Winter Weather Advisory". Similarly, they no longer say that "a hard rain's gonna fall." Instead, they warn of a "significant precipitation event". Leave it to the Federal government to come up with the topper, though. An annual report that measures Americans access to food used to use the word "hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the table. Now, they describe these people as having "very low food security".

To communicate effectively, remember to use only words, terms and phrases that will mean something to your audience. That's part of the difference between "talking" and "communicating". So instead of executing a nuclear socially and genetically-linked subgroup nutrition and sustenance ingestation event, just enjoy a nice family dinner. And talk to each other in words that actually mean something to others.