Words are very powerful. In fact, the vocabulary is a very high correlation with IQ scores. We use words to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Internally, we use words to think. For both reasons - thinking and communicating - with a strong vocabulary is valuable, and improving our vocabulary is a goal worthy of self-improvement.
I'm not writing a new, highly technical or difficult word though. I'm writing on a word that most of us everyday. And I am writing to tell you that we all under-use or misuse.
The Holiday Season
I always found it interesting to observe the behavior and listen to conversations around the Christmas period. If you listen buyers will talk about long lines and inventory items. We will talk about rude employees and freight price. You speak of doing things shipped in time, find the gift for Uncle I-Never-Know-What-To-Get-Him, stale fruitcakes and bad weather. We discuss the preparation and cooking to get done, and sent cards. Will anguish knowing the decorations on their house looks ok. They will grieve over the gift they have bought before it was marked at 30%.
Have you heard the tirades, the stories of pain. It is possible that they had said or yourself. Somewhere in that conversation you describe someone or something as "horrible." Others in the conversation shook their heads in agreement.
The Christmas period
During the month the same complaints and frustrations something else also happens. People smile more. People who rarely speaks throughout the year, if the neighbors or the people whose offices are opposite ends of the corridor, stop or even make a point, to say "Merry Christmas". We also want to know "Happy Holidays!" We listen to a different set of CDs and cassettes, and for a couple of weeks is the # 1 song in America is "Joy to the World" or "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and not the latest hit from a band that no one will remember in two years. People are polite on the highways, making room for someone in their lane. People are more giving and forgiving. Even amid the bustle, the shopping and wrapping, people still have the Christmas spirit.
When I think of these circumstances, these positive changes in behavior, I'm literally terrified - that we seem to automatically go into a mental space to be more gentle, sweet and affectionate, just because we turn our calendars in December.
The Word
About a week ago, I wrote down the phrase "terrible vs awe-filled" on a piece of paper and began to ruminate on my thesis for an essay. I was going to talk about how a couple of additional letters might change a word - and our very perspective.
Aw-ful adj. [View complete fear and] an awe-inspiring, highly impressive second causing fear, terrible terrible 3, 4 awesome full of fear, reverential 5 very ugly, ugly, unpleasant, etc. [a] terrible joke *
I would bet that anyone reading this uses the word awful with his number one definition. Definitions 2, 3 and 5 - and this is another story. Then I realized my old dictionary - with a copyright 1988. Hmm ... perhaps the meaning has changed, I thought. So I went to Dictionary.com, to obtain a more recent, and here's what I found:
Awful adj.
1. Extremely bad or unpleasant; terrible had a terrible day at the office.
2. Commanding awe: "this sea, whose gently awful unrest seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath" (Herman Melville).
3. Full of wonder, in particular:
Others Filled with or displaying great reverence.
b. Obsolete. Fear.
4. Formidable in nature or scope: a terrible burden, a terrible risk.
The order of definitions is different, but the message is the same. We are cheating the terrible word! My thesis is the first to add a few letters out of the window. Terrible and frightening, the same word with two very different meanings.
While not terrible is the only word that has different meanings, is a great example precisely because of those meanings and how different they are. The words we use are powerful. They define our mood and our perspective. Help to explain the world around us.
Not Just in December
I chose December to make my point, because while we all want to get into the spirit of the season, some people seem to get faster and stay longer in this spirit. People who can "bring the spirit" are the most reverent and why we celebrate the wonderful things that can happen during that time of year. In other words, people who choose to see the fear on the season.
While I have described a series of positive and negative behaviors that occur during the holidays, I could do this for every month and every situation. I could remember what people find to be unpleasant - awful - at that time or situation, or I could describe what that is highly impressive - terrible - in that regard. So, as I write this essay in December, the message must be clear throughout the year. We can make a choice that the definition of the word you want to use, and that the definition that we seek.
The challenge
I see people who seem to find things to complain about, looking for things to confirm how things are terrible. Find what you need. If I'm looking for "very bad, unpleasant" things around me, I will find them. However, if you are looking for things that "inspire awe", I find those terrible things as well.
Which of these I see during the holidays? I try the rest of the year? Recognizing that you have a choice in what you want, you are looking for tomorrow?
I wish you a very bad Christmas and New Year impressive.
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