Have you seen the viral video about boneless chicken wings? See the irony, and the spiritual analogy, in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.
Do these look like wings? How did they get the bones out?
Our language has become incredibly corrupted. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that true and honest communication is so difficult in our society today. Sometimes it seems like everyone is speaking different languages and no one is listening. Most people only hear what they already believe, whether it makes sense or not. People repeat nonsense words and phrases, mistakenly thinking they sound astute and erudite.
Ander Christiansen from Lincoln, Nebraska is fed up with one phrase. He asked his city council to have restaurants rename “boneless chicken wings” to something true and descriptive, rather than the lie that it is. How novel—truth. Watch the video here.
It turns out that “boneless chicken wings” are, in fact, chicken tenders—otherwise known as chicken fingers. (Hint: Chickens don’t have fingers either.) Here is the Wikipedia entry for chicken fingers.
“Chicken fingers, also known as chicken tenders, chicken goujons, chicken strips, tendies or chicken fillets, are chicken meat prepared from the pectoralis minor muscles of the animal. These strips of white meat are located on either side of the breastbone, under the breast meat (pectoralis major). They may also be made with similarly shaped pieces cut from chicken meat, usually the breast, or sometimes just pulverized chicken flesh.”
Huh, not wings at all. Breasts. You’d think people would be aware of breasts. Most of us have noticed that they’re already “boneless”.
It reminds me of an old Far Side cartoon that showed a picture of a barnyard with lots of skinned and floppy birds lying on the ground. The caption read, “A Boneless, Skinless Chicken Ranch”.
Say what you mean, and mean what you say. I have come to believe that most people have no idea what they are saying, partly because the words don’t mean what the words mean. If you mean “strips of chicken breast”, then don’t say “boneless chicken wings”. They’re not wings at all.
It’s so ironic that humans developed language in order to communicate and now we have corrupted language so we can’t communicate. Here are a few other examples. It took me years to figure out that “sustainable development” doesn’t mean that at all. Many people use this term for ideas that cannot possibly be sustained—like printing money to pay for things you don’t need. Even a child knows that’s not sustainable. I was stumped by the political term “progressive” for many years. I finally figured out it really means “regressive”. No wonder I was confused. How ironic. We have lost our understanding of what language is supposed to be.
The spiritual analogy is that we have lost our understanding of our oneness with God. We came from God. Each one of us is a child of God. God created us. God should be as close to us as our breathing. But we have lost our connection. We have lost our way. It’s really ironic. How can we not be in touch with what is most truly us? Only when we find our way back to God, to that oneness with God that we once enjoyed, will we find the Peace and Love that is our birthright.
Keep seeking. You’ll find it.
God Bless You!
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