Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Wordplay Wednesday™ November 16, 2016 – Irrupt


Fair Fights and Gracious Winners / Losers  

Is that a myth? Has society ever been that way?

Perhaps it’s only a small number of us who want to live in a somewhat civilized world. Apparently most everyone—especially those who have nothing to do all day, but carp and complain on Social Media and brawl in the streets—would prefer to fight dirty and fling mud.

Never has that been more evident than in this election year, when we have learned more about ourselves and those in power, than we ever truly wanted. Ignorance can indeed, be bliss.

Many dirty little secrets from decades ago actually prove only what we have always known but didn’t want to admit—even those in power are nothing more than human. And obviously, the average human is no pillar of virtue.

From our most revered presidents, certainly our once-admired sports figures, and let’s not forget our golden celebs and the whole entertainment industry, to local notables—in the past decade, we’ve been inundated with exposures of the most disreputable kind.

The problem is discerning the difference between disgraceful and criminal. Unfortunately, Social Media—that mob mentality body of know-it-alls—plays judge, jury, and hangman, whether its collective position is right or wrong, after the facts are revealed.

No one is safe from the “politically correct police” of Social Media. Our idols all have been found to hide warts and worse in their respective closets, viciously flung open for our seedy, voyeuristic inspection.

Frankly m’dears, I don’t give a tinker’s damn.

What I do care about is how any of it affects me—and contrary to media reports, there are millions of others who feel the same way—we just aren’t prone to wasting our precious time on Social Media vilifying people we don’t KNOW, or taking to the streets in violent distractions …

IRRUPT (i ruptʹ) vi. – 1) to burst suddenly or violently; 2 to increase abruptly in size of population. [WW #86]

Please don’t irrupt into indignation at my words—those who live in tolerance and demonstrate PEACEFULLY and constructively, often change the world. I speak my irritation for those who are paid to disrupt with their irruptions, and those who physically and mentally bully anyone who doesn’t see the world through their irruptive, black-eyed glasses.

Isn’t it strange that we staunchly defend our right to speak, yet individually and socially, we condemn those who speak counter to our beliefs, and worse, pass judgement on what is deemed “politically incorrect”?

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Wordplay Wednesday™ November 9, 2016 – Pule



‘Tis Better to Laugh than to Cry 

Trump Team: enjoy the moment and look to a brighter future. Clinton Camp: ‘tis better to laugh than to cry—besides, it runs the mascara.

Whoever was your candidate, today we must stand—together—as “we the people” and move forward to shake off the debilitating pall that has ruled us for the past decade-plus. Without whining 
PULE (pyōōl) vi. – to whimper or whine, as a sick or fretful child does. [WW #85]

Responding to the puling of talking bobbleheads, they clearly have “education,” but no educated connection with majority Americans: neither education nor race denotes intelligence. Common sense does.

Last night, common sense won the election. Governance as usual is not an option.

Good or bad, Trump will CHANGE politics in this country, and THAT is what we, the people voted to happen.

Never underestimate the power of closet voters.

Though the majority vote may belong to Clinton, Trump took the electoral votes that matter—and it was the closet voters who stunned the world and came out of the closet to create the closest presidential race in recent US history.

Today, let’s not pule, but strive to be what we declare “… one Nation, under God, indivisible …” 

A personal note to those unrealistic and ungrateful celebs who puled in recent weeks that they would leave this magnificent country with a Trump win: do let the door hit ya on the way out.

One man or woman does not a country make … go ahead … abandon this majestic Nation of people who put you in your lap of luxury. Makes more room for those who love the USA for all its riches, not just its money and opportunity to flaunt an inflated sense of importance.

Word Challenge: PULE. Whining and crying rarely evokes a positive result—for children or adults. Can you put on a happy face and fit pule into your week of purposeful writings?


                       


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Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Wordplay Wednesday™ November 2, 2016 – Verism



Beautiful! Warts and All 

Ah, I found the perfect word for you this week, to follow the amusement and mystery of Halloween. Being the Scorpio I am, I identify most with the Halloween witch. Her familiar/muse is the sinuous black cat, and her striking, discreet beauty mark is a small, comely wart that lies aside her nose.

Beautiful, or hag? You decide …

VERISM  (virʹiz’ɘm) n. – realism or naturalism in the arts. [WW #84]

First found in Roman art during the latter part of the Roman Republic, verism goes beyond beautiful to form a more expressive realism in art; one might say, as “beauty in the eye of the beholder.”

There is no denying the considerable artistic talents of the Romans—and their realism period of verism waxed and waned over the centuries. By the late 1800s, it began to infiltrate Italy’s operatic productions that created a genre with such masters as Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini (Madame Butterfly).

I often go to Wiki for further explanation of a word or phrase; not as the definitive expert, but as an enhancement to my definitions. This time, the Wiki editor(s) made a notable observation: Verism, often described as "warts and all", shows the imperfections of the subject, such as warts, wrinkles and furrows. It should be absolutely noted that the term veristic in no way implies that these portraits are more "real". Rather, they too can be highly exaggerated or idealised, but within a different visual idiom, one which favours wrinkles, furrows, signs of age as indicators of gravity and authority.

So—applied to the 2016 presidential election, the “art of politics” today is a particular form of verism at its best … um, or worst.

Word Challenge: VERISM. More broadly applied—when our friends and family have warts, and we love them anyway. Can you fit verism into your week of beautiful writings?


               
        

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