I was on the back seat of a bus in some distant corner of the Amazon jungle in Peru when I first came across the word Bellicose. The diminutive native Peruvian sitting next to me had become intrigued about my presence on the bus and where I was from. Upon telling him I was from Inglaterra his words were short and so was the rest of the conversation muy belicoso. Very war-like.
I have never agreed with the war-like language so often used to refer to illnesses and health conditions, the latest pandemic being an example. There are numerous examples of bellicose language - in that people are said to be ‘battling, fighting’ dementia for example and hopefully ‘defeating’ in the case of some cancers. Politicians and public health policy often slip into war-like language such as ‘winning the battle against the invisible enemy.’ These negative words will no longer do when what we are needing is positive directions. War-like words do not serve us in our search for positivity.
Thankfully, in health care settings the more positive phrase ‘living with’ has become more dominant in recent years than its awful predecessor ‘suffering’. An illness, dementia or cancer, for example, does not define who I am. Nor should COVID define who we are, yet it is something we are living with. Like dementia or cancer, it is something which has come into our lives unbeckoned. In the face of such adversity or challenge, we would be better placed to talk of kindness, compassion and thinking of helping others first. Helping people see the opportunities as well as the challenges which still exist ahead.
Let us not talk or refer to war out of its rightful context and instead turn our full attention to finding hope, kindness and positivity. We can all lead the change in how we talk our way through this together.
