Five Words

I love words. I love the way they sound. I love there might be 50 words for the same thing, all with their own shades of meaning. I collect them. Play with them. Find shiny ones and put them in my pocket to use later.

But there are just some words that people latch onto with a death grip and use the snot out of until they become virtually meaningless. I’d like to ban them. Not permanently. Just for a little while. Just long enough to get them out of people’s system.

Here are 5:

Frustrated – this is probably just because I’ve been watching too much reality TV. The majority of “reality” people seem to have one emotional word to express how they relate to the world and each and every person, thing and activity in it. They’d think of a new word, but it’s just frustrating (see also – fustrating).

Amazing – I blame female celebrities for this one. For awhile, every interview with any young woman who was even remotely famous had to be peppered with at least “amazing” at least a dozen times: amazing experience, amazing boyfriend, amazing project, amazing sushi, amazing toilet paper. Then everybody picked it up. I’d say it’s more than a time for a moratorium on “amazing.” Unless you’re talking about Jesus. Or a magic trick.

I – or actually “i”. It started with the iPod. Then everything got an “i” stuck on the front, cause it was what the cool kids were doing. iHome, iConnect, iTunes, iYiyi. There’s even a restaurant called iTacos. I thought maybe they were cool tacos that you could order over the internet. They’re not. They’re just tacos. And not good ones.

Probiotics – Hey, I love them too. All the stuff to make your tummy healthy. But they're jamming probiotics into just about anything you can possibly swallow. I saw probiotic water flavoring packets this weekend. People do realize that they are living micro-organisms, right? Living. Like tiny little sea monkeys. Somehow it seems like if you eat enough of them, you’d turn into the Toxic Avenger. Why can’t we all just eat a nice cup of blueberry yogurt and leave it at that?

Aspirational – Ugh. I’d give up on all the others if I could get rid of this one. Aspirational clothes are the worst. Do you know what aspirational clothes are? Knock offs. And nobody that you would aspire to be would wear them.

And one word that's pushing it:

Seriously - Seriously. It is just getting over used. And I'm as guilty as anyone. But, I'm going to have to put this one on notice. Either we all back off, or we ruin it for everybody. Seriously.