An Actual Conversation with My Father
I wrote this in my nonfiction class for a prompt about what annoys us. It's like fine,,
__________
My dad seems to find an argument in anything I say. I’m pretty sure that’s his way of engaging in the conversation and letting me know he hears me, but it’s just not how I want to talk with him. A simple conversation in the car about etymology was flipped on its head by his views on time- for some reason?
“Like the way words hold meaning and certain connotations beyond what their dictionary definition is, you know?” I said. “That’s what I'm trying to say.”
“Mhm.”
“Like…the word rat. Rats themselves are just an animal, I have rats and I love rats, but people associate them with dirt and grime and disease. It’s almost like a generational trauma response from the 14th century because of the plague. You didn’t want to be around rats because rat equals death, you know?”
He agreed.
“And their meanings change and gain meaning as time goes on, like in recent history the word ‘rat’ has been made into an anti semitic slur.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, turning back from the steering wheel to look at me. That's his look that he gets when he hears something he doesn't agree with. This usually happens when I say what he would like to call "buzzwords" which are actually just words I use. It's like it's his conservative sleeper agent phrase.
“Like leading up to the Holocaust when the Nazis were trying to drive disdain for Jewish people. In an attempt to dehumanize–”
“Recent history?” he asked, brow furrowed.
“Yeah, 1940s.”
“Well, I mean, you can’t use the holocaust argument! That’s a cop out.”
“What do you mean it's a cop out? I’m talking about how words gain meanings and that’s a good example,” I explained.
“Recent history doesn’t go that far back!”
“The ‘40s? That’s not recent? On the timeline of when we first started speaking English that’s the blink of an eye, what are you talking about? When do you think recent history starts?” I asked, extremely confused.
“I don’t know…like the 1960s.”
At this point, I realized it wasn’t worth arguing with him about this because he was just going to continue on like this. Sometimes he couldn’t see past his own lens on life. He was born in 1966 so it made sense that he thought his lifetime was recent history.
I interviewed a 100 year old veteran of World War II and I’m sure he would’ve had a different answer than my dad about what recent history was. It was annoying. I continued to try and explain myself for the next five minutes and then put the issue to rest.
