...But.....

  Okay, I'm sure you've seen their work. The grammer police. Correcting the use of "their, they're, and there" on your posts. I'm not going to touch that. There is another word that needs to be addressed in my opinion.
   But.
 This is not so much a grammatical problem. Rather, it is a communication problem. We misuse the word. We use "But" instead of "And".

"And" means, "in addition to what I just said...".
ex. "I liked the apple pie and I'm going to have another slice."

"But", on the other hand, means, "what I just said is not true".
ex. "The apple pie looks delicious but tastes terrible."

Simple, right? Here's where we go wrong. Here is the worst possible use of the word "but":
"I love you, but..."
Promise me you will never say that again. So wrong. What's so bad about that? We really hear, or interpret that statement as "I don't love you, so...". Think about it. Whenever anybody says to you,    "I love you but...", it always has a bad feeling associated with it. It puts you on the defensive.

Try this now. "I love you. And..." . Now you can't wait to hear what's next. It seems to solidify whatever is coming next.

Here's my challenge for you. Don't use the word "but" for one week.
 Find another way to build sentences using "and". ("however" is a poor substitute and using it would really only serve to show a lack of creativity or concern for others) Not just with "I love you", remove it altogether from you're vocabulary. I think you'll notice how much it impacts communication. And communication is how we connect with other people and how we connect with other people is a big part of how we create our world, whether we realize or intend it, or not.

Peace,
       George