“I’ve looked at life from MY side now…”

I can imagine Joni Mitchell singing those modified lyrics every time I encounter one of today’s most grating phrases.

The phrase: “my lived experience.”

Every time some blowhard wants to identify as an expert and shut down all dissent, they appeal to their years (or months or weeks or that one time at the truck stop when the soap dispensers were almost empty) of “lived experience.”

You know the drill. (“Shut up and listen. Maybe you’ll be entitled to an opinion when you’ve shown up for your final exam in your underwear. Thank goodness I was able to flap my arms and fly away…oh, wait…that’s my dreamed experience. Well, I’m adding this embarrassing incident to my tale of constant sorrow…”)

All well and good, but it occurs to me that lived experien

See Full Page