Language - A gift

I learned to speak and read Spanish in college.  I taught myself to read French in order to complete some research I was involved in.  I am by no means an expert in any language.  Heaven's knows I still have to look up words in English that I do not know or have never before used.  Words are at the heart of our communication.  There is, by far, no better way to get a point across.  True, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but they are unspoken words, contemplative words. 
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to look at paintings by Norman Rockwell, a great American illustrator.  In his works you will see more than a thousand words.  He was an illustrator of the highest rank chosing his subject matter, color, placement and personal expression to show a story with his paint brush.  But, fine art is subjective.  The story you may see may not coincide with what I may see.  In a written story, that is not always the case. When you read a story the plot unfolds in the manner in which the author intended.  The hero or heroin does what the author wants them to do and says what he wants them to say so that the story follows through to a pre-defined conclusion.  There is no self interpretation, unless the author deliberately intends it to be so.
Language, any language is a gift that has been refined by thousands of years of usage.  It is living and amorphous.  From generation to generation we change it to fit our times and circumstances.  New inventions, new places, new ideas all need new names.  Language is essential for communication and defines mankind as an animal with the ability to change his environment to suit his needs.
In learning to read and use other languages beside my native English, I became impressed with the expressive value that ours and other languages possess.  While short cuts in English, and, yes I am talking about keyboard shorthand, are useful, they do not possess the ability for rich self-expression.
It would only be to our detriment that our rich and expressive language be abandoned for the less expressive short-cuts of "lol" or "omg."
I am not against the evolution of any language.  That is an inevitable by product of change.  However, do not cut off the nose to spite the face.  Let us keep our vibrant, beautiful languages while making that change.  Language is the epitome of thought; the very way we think is set up to "hear" our voices when you think something through.  Keeping language fluid and understandable is a task we should not ignore and it's richness is something that should be cherished and taught.