Understatement

May 4th, 2010 by Ed Surrey Posted in Uncategorized

We are kings and queens of overstatement.

That was the funniest joke in the world.  It was the greatest game ever.  I’ve told you a thousand times. I asked Jon Rumble for an example of an overstatement he said “Ed is attractive.”  ”No, because for that to be true, ” retorted Dave, “it would have to be even a little bit true.”  This is why I’ve never blogged before, because it is the most annoying thing in the whole world – fact.

Dead guys were much better at understatement.  Alexander Graham Bell said this about his invention of the telephone: “I do not think I am exaggerating the possibilities of this invention when I tell you that; it is my firm belief that, one day, there will be a telephone in every major town in America.”  Brilliant.

My favourite dead guy of the past is George Whitefield.  He was great, firstly because he was English, but also because he was a great preacher and a great evangelist.  And as I read about George we see he is a king of understatement.  Understatement shows many great Christian virtues: humility, gentleness, truthfulness.  I want to be an understater, not an overstater, like George Whitefield.  To his friend Benjamin Franklin, who sort of invented electricity and was one of the ‘Founding Fathers’ of America, he wrote this on 14th August 1753:

“As you have made pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent unprejudiced pursuit and study the mystery of new birth.  It is a most important, interesting study, and when mastered, will richly repay you for all your pains.’

Considerable progress.  Humbly recommend.  Most important.  Richly repay.  That is the best understatement ever.

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