O.H.P.
I always had a good laugh with this but for anyone under the age of about 30, they'd have no idea about the joke. OHP, stands for "overhead projector". In fact, I called him, "overhead projector" and he and I all laughed about it. The problem for younger generations is, they don't even know what an overhead projector is.
Here's an OHP for people who don't know.
This isn't the only abbreviation people don't know anymore. There are other funny things. For instance, you still find "W.C.s" on building plan drawings. This short for "Water closets", that is toilets. There are however, modern replacements for these sorts of things. MSG, LOL and BTW, spring to mind straight away. The question in my mind is this...
What happens to society when some of the abbreviations we've let go involved important relational or cultural behavior?
Many of these abbreviations carry cultural cues and expectations that are unspoken or they're "in-jokes". You might wonder what I'm banging on about until I bring up the following letters. Then this will all be crystal clear. For many people they'll bring a cold chill...
R.S.V.P.
Now, I have to be honest. Until I looked it up, I didn't know exactly what those letters specifically stood for. I knew it was French, but beyond that, werl. Anyhow, Wiki tells me this...
It is an initialism derived from the French phrase Répondez s'il vous plaît meaning "Please respond".
We're all tempted to laugh at this. However, as with all humor there is more than a grain of truth to this. People are getting to the stage where they're very desperate to try and nail people's movements down. I know people who have individually called EVERY relative on the invitation list several weeks AFTER sending out invitations to try and confirm who was coming. Even after that, some of those invited still didn't confirm their attendance.
I personally think there was an interesting intersection between the drop off in RSVP responses and the increase in text messages. Now of course, corollary doesn't equal causation. There are some other factors there too. However, even still, it seems like young people's increasing ease with living life via texts has lead to all other forms of communication falling away. I'll talk about more about the factors in a minute, but for now I think that RSVP now means this...
"Text me after the date if you really need me to be there."
The irony of this situation is this. The very people who were guilty of this sort of thing a few years ago are the ones who are now ringing their hands as their friends fail to commit to major events, like weddings. The key concept in all these things are these three words, "failure to commit".
Why can't people commit anymore?
I think the simple answer is, "why should I?". That is to say, people have no reason why they should. Life is full of options, why stick to just one of them? My wife invited a young friend to an event a few years ago and the friend said, "I'll let you know. I wanna wait to see if anything better comes up". We were horrified. Why wouldn't people choose something and stick to it? As I said, in their mind they are really thinking, "I don't have to". Or to put it in other words...
"Actually, it's all about me"
This is of course the logical end point of individualism. Life is all about the individual, their wants, desires, options and needs. The problem is, it has a cost. We've run many, many events where it's been next to impossible to do the best we can do because we don't know who will turn up. People running events like weddings have invited less people because they can't get solid commitments from those they invite. This even applies to simple meals. My wife and I have had to dart off to the shops at the last minute... or even during a get together, because people turned up unannounced and unexpected... After being invited but not replying.
Which is the other part of the problem. I've seen unexpected guests turn up late only to be told by the organizer they'd missed out. The people in question looked pretty angry. But really, what did they think would happen?
In the end, as western culture departs further and further from it's Christian roots, this sort of thing is bound to happen. Australia was a place where people used to be, "good to their word". "Loyalty" and "Mateship" meant people could always depend on you. These ideas are biblical. They reflect Jesus' teaching about relationships and commitment...
"Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No" (Matthew 5:37)
And of course...
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
I guess the point of this is what we've known all along, truly caring for and loving people means committing to things. It also means letting go of other 'options' to care for people and show we love them. The sad truth is as self-sacrifice drops out of relationships, the quality of relationships will also suffer. I have a bigger concern beyond individual relationships though.
How can real love and community exist where all the parties operate only out of self-interest?
It's got me thinking.
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