Philip Larkin and The Good Wife- how to choose your words
Larkin’s poem “Talking in Bed” ends with these lines… It becomes still more difficult to find Words at once true and kind, Or not untrue and not unkind. I’m not sure whether this observation is sad, or maybe the best we can hope for? Is it perhaps better than the alternative- words that are untrue and unkind? In the TV world of American public life, portrayed by series such as The Good Wife, characters spend most of their time speaking words which are neither true nor kind. We are led to believe that public discourse, whether in the media, politics or the law, is all about power, manipulation and revenge. The last thing anyone seems interested in is whether the words are true- until the lies become personal and hurtful, of course. Perhaps the compromise Larkin suggests is better than this- can we at least agree to speak to one another in a way that is “not untrue and not unkind”? Yet God expects more than this of His children. We are to seek truth and kindness…and ...