Cardigan, Vest or Windcheater?

In my, “Me? Trendy,” article recently, I used interchangeably the words, Cardigan, Vest and Windcheater. Now you may be wondering which is correct.

I honestly don’t know. I was happy to generically call them Windcheaters, which is what I bought them as. However I had felt compelled to also refer to them as a Cardigan, so as to describe it more accurately verbally. Or so I thought!

At the same time, while I would never have called it a vest myself, I can see how others saw it that way. So at the end of this discussion, I don’t know the correct name for them. All I know is that they achieved the purpose I bought them for. To keep me warm from the Wind.

Instead of asking which is correct, it may be more instructive to ask, does it really matter what we call them?

Yes and no. On the one hand it doesn’t matter what you call it as long as it achieves the purpose that you bought it for.

On the other, it does help when talking about something if you are all on the same wave length. It did not help me to find it again by asking about a wind cheater, when my sister was thinking of a Cardigan.

Yes we did eventually work out that we were both talking about the same thing, but time and effort was wasted in doing so. This time, no real damage or delay was inflicted by/on us talking/thinking at cross purposes to each other, but that is not always so.

So we need to be careful when we are talking with others that we are all on the same wavelength and that when we use a word we also need to be sure that others understand it in the same way as we do or they and we can sometimes be completely misled.

What about you? Are you careful in what you say? Are you always hearing what the other person is actually saying, or do you only “hear” through your own understanding of the words said?

For your own sake, as well as others, be aware of what you are really saying: Walter