{"id":215,"date":"2011-01-10T10:10:15","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T10:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/01\/metaphor-monday-can-words-kill.html"},"modified":"2011-01-10T10:10:15","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T10:10:15","slug":"metaphor-monday-can-words-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/01\/metaphor-monday-can-words-kill.html","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor Monday :: Can Words Kill?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img-hp-main---giffords-target_163552333790.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head a point blank range this past Saturday injuring 14 other people, with six dead. The suspect is 22-year-old Jared Loughner who apparently planned out this killing ahead of time. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
If you listened to Tom Ashbrook’s On Point <\/a>this morning, the conversation turned towards the rhetoric of violence and First Amendment rights for free speech. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
An article in the Daily Beast<\/a> catalogues violent rhetoric that has been used towards Representative Giffords. Sarah Palin placed Giffords in her “crosshairs.” An article in the Huffington Post<\/a> reports on Palin’s denial that the “crosshairs” had anything to do with guns. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Her opponent in the congressional race whom she narrowly defeated, Jerry Kelly, according to this article, said, “ “Get on target for victory,” “Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully a automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Obviously, it is impossible to attribute cause and effect. This disturbed young man could have been acting alone out of his personal situations and circumstances. He could also have been influenced by political rhetoric provided by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and others. For example, Sarah Palin says, “Don’t retreat, reload.”<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
George Eliot in Middlemarch<\/i> cautioned perhaps prophetically, <\/span><\/font>“All of us, grave or light,
\nget our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of
\nthem.”<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
We can see metaphors of violence and warfare in contemporary political speech. Most of us, thankfully, don’t act out these metaphors. <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Whatever the case, we can see that political speech focuses more on attacking the person, e.g., Obama, rather than ideas, e.g., healthcare. <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Whatever is happening, mindfulness is certainly absent. So we can think about the words we use and consider the consequences of the words we use. We identify with our words; they shape the way we see the world, what we pay attention to and what we ignore. <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head a point blank range this past Saturday injuring 14 other people, with six dead. The suspect is 22-year-old Jared Loughner who apparently planned out this killing ahead of time.  If you listened to Tom Ashbrook’s On Point this morning, the conversation turned towards the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,7,8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-media","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness","category-mindful-living","category-spider-mind-world-of-interconnections"],"yoast_head":"\nMetaphor Monday :: Can Words Kill? - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/01\/metaphor-monday-can-words-kill.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Metaphor Monday :: Can Words Kill? - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head a point blank range this past Saturday injuring 14 other people, with six dead. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}