“Cut it out!” I used to hear this phrase a lot; not so much nowadays. It just means, “Stop that.” Stop doing or saying whatever. It’s a useful phrase, a word picture of taking a pair of scissors and snipping off something, or using a black marker and rubbing it out. The thing of it is, we love our words and sometimes, we don’t want to cut them out.
In writing, one of the hardest things a writer has to do is edit out those unnecessary words or phrases, or sometimes whole pages. The thing to remember is that at times less is more. The same is true when painting a picture. A painting can look pretty perfect, but we just don’t want to put down that brush. Colors are fascinating. Just a bit more here or a tiny dab there, and before we know it, the whole effect has changed from one of clarity to one of clutter.
How many times have you heard a speaker speak forcefully, make his point, and then drone on and on. As a child, I heard a dear, old preacher who couldn’t stop after his sermon had ended. He just wasn’t aware that it was over. He repeated, he said the same thing a dozen different ways. He used flowery words and phrases that didn’t fit and didn’t embellish, and his audience grew restless. Our minds wandered to what we were having for Sunday dinner, and then the point of his good sermon was lost.
Many times, things are best left unsaid or unwritten. I wonder how many fights or misunderstandings have started because a person didn’t stop speaking when he was ahead? Words are fun; they are wonderful tools, but we have to use them judiciously. We have to learn when to stop or when say, “That’s enough. It’s time to cut it out.”
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