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Making It Real |
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True Story: I concluded a day of work with a brilliant client. Once again she deftly demonstrated her broad-bandwidth intelligence. Decisively and without pretense, she generously guided us with the wisdom of her experience, charging up everyone who reports to her with an eagerness to meet the challenges she set before us. When it was all over, I commented on her performance to a colleague, who agreed and added, "Yeah, and she's real." I guess that means I wasn't dreaming. True Story: Around the time of the 2004 US presidential election, I asked a die-hard Republican what in the world he saw in George W. Bush. He replied (yes, you guessed it), "He's real." My friend was right—America's special-needs president is real stupid. And that's a real problem, because it makes him real dangerous! Let's get one thing straight. Everything is real. Even dreams are real dreams. The word has it's place, however. It should be used to distinguish between something that is what it appears to be and something that is not what it appears to be—a real war hero vs. a chickenhawk, for example. When you say someone is real, I think you mean to say that he or she is unpretentious, straightforward, honest, frank, direct, aboveboard, genuine... With so many wonderful words at our disposal, it's a shame to shortchange someone you admire with such faint praise as "real." As they used to tell rowdy kids in daycare, "Use your words!" |
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Don't take my word for it. Dig deeper. |
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