MadMania

For years I have used and taught a maxim that our Pastor taught me regarding whether or not I should say what I am thinking:

Is it true?
Is it kind?
Is it necessary?

And by “used” I mean “I have tried to use this but sometimes I find myself speaking before I think and then things get ugly not because I said something I didn’t mean but because I totally meant it I just didn’t mean for it to come out of my mouth.”

Anyway, it’s an excellent list. However, it doesn’t make a good acronym. I guess someone tried to take a whack at it, because my wife asked me recently what the I in the acronym THINK were:

True
Helpful
I
Necessary
Kind

Apparently someone added ‘Helpful,’ of which I approve. I didn’t know the rest until I was moving a computer and someone had it on their wall–the ‘I’ stands for ‘Inspiring.’

I don’t care much for ‘Inspiring.’ If I have cancer, please tell me I have cancer–THNK. But there ain’t no inspiring way to say that.

So I came up with my own:

True
Appropriate
Necessary
Kind

I know what you’re thinking–TANK? Yeah TANK. Because it conveys the idea that words, like tanks, have the potential of both protection and destruction.

What about the H for Helpful? Well, the H is good, but then we get THANK, which I think should be reserved for another character quality like, oh, I dunno, thankfulness. Besides, if you get TANK right, the words will be helpful.

The A is the one that sometimes gets me into the most trouble. Being a teacher, I love to impart information. However, sometimes you gotta learn that just because a person expresses curiosity about something doesn’t actually mean that they want to know the answer–or that you should be the one to tell it to them. I won’t tell you what any of those things are.

That would not be appropriate.