A few years ago I began noticing that clerks, receptionists, gas station attendants—generally all the strangers I encountered in the course of a day—were attaching possessive pronouns to their parting salutations. “Enjoy your day!” “Enjoy your evening!” “Enjoy your weekend!” These wishes were automatic, but not unfriendly. Nevertheless, I found myself resisting. The evening didn’t belongto me. It was everyone’s evening. Yes, I would have my own particular experience of it, but why call it mine? I couldn’t—and can’t—help hearing this use of language as a sign of a culture that, conceived and predicated on the importance of individual liberty, has come to value individual experience a little too much.

We use language to negotiate the world in many automatic ways, employing words and phrases we’ve used hundreds or thousands of times before, rarely examining what our expressions say about what we think or value. But the words we use reveal a great deal about us, both as individuals and as a culture. (For a deep analysis of the underpinnings of our language read George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s wonderful book Metaphors We Live By.)

But back to these possessive pronouns. They have moved well beyond strangers’ salutations; the business world has embraced them with a vengeance. My Verizon. My Market of Choice. My Computer. My Favorites. Me.com. (I could go on… and on…and on…) It is a language of individuality, of owning and amassing. This language implicitly extolls the personal experience over the communal experience; it encourages us to be self-centered and territorial. This is mine!  By using such language, even inadvertently (and how can we avoid it?!), we are reinforcing the values embedded therein.

I don’t expect this trend to change anytime soon. There are too many of us struggling to survive on a changing planet, struggling to be heard, struggling to maintain our dignity. It’s no wonder we need to brand ourselves in me.com-like ways.

But personally, I’m trying to buck the trend, if only by saying: Enjoy the day!