Honestly, lately I’m getting impatient, which I’m going to talk to you a little bit more about later on, and of course, tired from some words that always bother me continuously. But now, I just want to talk about it.

Think about it. You tell me you’ll make it at 8:00 and I’ll say, “Perfect.” But what’s actually perfect about it? It’s just an 8:00 meeting that you agreed to show up for. We are using these huge, great words for the smallest things, and it’s creating this auditory saturation. Just a constant noise that doesn’t mean anything anymore. It seems that everything is perfect. The way the waiter take your order, he says, “Perfect.” You say to somebody, “Wait a second,” and they say, “Perfect.” Maybe the word is just, “Thank you, I’ll be right there,” instead of “Perfect.” Yes, thank you. I don’t understand this constant noise. Everything all around is always perfect.

And then there is “Amazing.” We are all going crazy being amazed all the time. This is amazing, that’s amazing. If everything is amazing, then nothing is. Was it the sunset that actually took your breath away, amazing? Was it the book that actually moved you, amazing? But a job well done is just a job well done, not amazing. A good meal, hey, let’s be honest, it’s just a great meal. We can’t be amazed every second of the day. It’s, frankly, exhausting.

We have saturated ourselves with these empty words. And then there is, of course, “I’m sorry” that is so easily said and delivered, almost like an impulse. We say “I’m sorry” when we bumped into somebody. We say it when we are 3-4 minutes late. If “sorry” is what we say when you forget the milk, then what do you say when you actually cause an accident, when you actually hurt someone or break a heart? And please, please don’t get me started about, “Hey, can I ask you a quick question?” We only say it to steal someone’s time without them noticing it. But we all know there’s no such thing as a quick question. There’s only a long answer just waiting to happen. And by calling it quick, you’re just telling me my response shouldn’t require thought.

“Amazing,” “I’m sorry,” “No problem,” “Quick question,” “Perfect,” and other words that I can’t even think about right now become such a part of our day-to-day vocabulary, and I can’t do anything to change it.

That is why we’re here at East to West. I am happy to move away tonight and every night of East to West past the perfects, past the quick question, and all the fake sorry. I just want the music to fill all those voids. I can assure you this: it’s not going to be a perfect show, and it’s not going to be amazing. It’s going to be a great playlist that I’ve put a lot of effort to produce for this evening program, purely for your enjoyment. Stay with me for the next couple of hours.