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DEATH: end of life
This may seem like a ghoulish posting, but it’s a legitimate result of thinking about significant words that are common in our language. No, I’m not obsessing on death, and I’m not aware of being...
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GRIM: having a harsh, sinister, forbidding appearance
The “Grim Reaper” (pictured to right) is a euphemism for death. It is a classic phrase used to soften the harshness of the word death and is depicted as a ghostly, dark character who appears with...
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MORIBUND [MAWR-uh-buhnd]: dying, near death
I came across a comment the other day that struck me as incorrect. The person wrote that the issue of gun control legislation in Congress was moribund. As I read on, I discovered that the writer...
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HOPE: the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out...
The images we see on television are incomprehensible to those of us in our safe homes away from Oklahoma. We would have to be there on the scene to have a true appreciation for the destruction...
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CHRYSALIS [KRIS-uh-lis]: the hard shell covering surrounding a caterpillar...
Every middle school science student has learned about the chrysalis. If the science teacher is creative, the class has spread out in the fields to find one hanging on a branch. It is a tubular, hard...
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CARDIO: heart
Forgive me if I alter the content of this blog posting. Usually I am intent upon trying to define a word and put it into context. Today, however, I want to do something that I’ve been thinking...
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GRIEVE [greev]: to feel sorrow
It seems that the fact of death has become more and more common in my life lately. Do you suppose that it has anything to do with the fact that I am now an “older American?” But the issue of death...
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MADDING: acting in a frenzied manner
Some people like crowds. Some don’t. Some people receive energy by being in a crowded place. Others get claustrophobia. Crowds can be vehicles of great celebration. Crowds can be militant and...
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CERTAINTY: without a doubt
There is little in life about which one can be absolutely certain. Except, maybe, that one day each of us will die. In spite of cryogenics (the freezing of the body in expectation that it will be...
View ArticleWAR: my lengthy commentary on a controversial subject by Jed Waverly
It seems like a no-brainer to me today as I think about it carefully. In fact, it makes me feel like a real idiot that I haven’t been clearer about it in the past. But today I am taking a break from...
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LOSS: not to win (duh)
If you were among those of us who watched the Master’s Tournament on Sunday, you may understand the sadness I felt when 22-year-old Jordan Spieth blew it on the 12th hole, falling from first place to...
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FOREBODING: a strong inner feeling or notion of a future misfortune, evil, etc.
“There’s just something spooky about that place.” How many times have you said that or thought it? It’s a common expression of anticipatory fear, stimulated by a setting, a smell, a sound, or a...
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