Word Fret

I love words. Big words. Little words.  Words like nomenclature – such a divine word and so hard to work into conversation without sounding forced, pompous or erudite-adjacent.  Nomenclature is like the treasured friend you don’t see too often because your lives have diverged.

Succulent. My mouth moistens in delight as it forms the word. Succulent is my fleshy, juicy, luscious friend – the one with which I look at trees when it rains. Rain – a favorite word for all Californians, the promise of drought’s end and of earth’s delight.   Supine— the joyous position on the couch my dog and I assume after a long hike, both of us luxuriating in our physical exhaustion, content of late to listen the sky’s rainy song.

So many words to love and savor in my mouth and on the page.  I love words, their size is irrelevant. . But not all words.

There ae words that have become enemy combatants because of their recent associations.  Huge.  Huge – pronounced as if the ‘H’ is silent due to some imagined rule of the King’s English.  Huge, you are dead to me. Your compatriots: Russia, crooked, so-called, alternative facts and their brethren shall also appear less frequently on my lips and in my pages.  You, our terrifying-but-rightful leader, have bastardized language for me forever. I blame you for this and other evils.  Your Orwellian obfuscation of words’ meanings is chilling.  You make ‘truthiness’ seem acceptable.  You use the nomenclature of a salesman, hawking deals without knowing – or maybe even caring – about the details. In your world, you only need to know the art of the deal –minions and losers will be there to craft the art of the fine print.

My thoughts lie supine on the page trying to crawl back to their original meaning, back to those long-ago weeks when a press conference made news for substance and not (surreal) style.  When facts had no alternatives no matter how much they didn’t serve our goals – or ego. Before chaos means clockwork – and real leaks can lead to fake news.

I fear that Trump’s damage to the language will be the least of his bequests to the USA.  I hope I’m wrong and that his nomenclature of success will cause all ships to rise in this great country of ours however everyone phrases it.