Overused and misused words

The swirling detritus of social navel-inspecting continues in the morning news. What a desperate circus. Now, there are lawsuits that include, as part of their core argument, whether the pandemic was an "unprecedented" occurrence in modern times. There we go again; revisionist history. I suppose we can assume it was not unprecedented; after all, great swaths of humanity have died over and over again with plagues and even in the 1918 Flu and its rebound waves. 

So-- if those are the precedents, and if we followed how those were handled, even more people would have died. Would continue to die. But those who are asserting that there were precedents are saying so because they believe shutting things down was the wrong plan to follow. 

Ugh. 

Anyhow, that's one of those words I honestly do not ever want to hear again (unprecedented)-- it's taken on a cachet of ignorance and a hollowness that only comes from misusing a word in too many contexts. 

Like new and improved. Or instant classic. Or hero.

And let's not get started on alright becoming acceptable. My inner grammarian is cringing. (I may be able to make the case that Matthew McConaughey is to blame for that one.)

Ugh again. Words have innate power, and they should be used carefully and with intention. Unfortunately, we have, as a culture, the aggravating habit of making words meaningless, quite probably to match the actual emotional lack of depth that goes along with them. 

Maybe silence, with active listening as its companion, is what we need.

Take care,

C