Words. I love words. Those sounds or those characters that when spoken or written communicate a meaning, together with inflection and context can express our thoughts and feelings, connecting us with the other thinking beings on the planet we share with them. This includes most humans and all dogs.
I have some favorites among them. Indefatigable, untenable and irascible to name a few. The nuances of color that chartreuse and vermilion represent, being neither yellow or green nor red or orange respectively, demonstrate not only the spectrum of the color chart but the versatility of our language.
Some words I particularly like are those that connote one thing to some folks initially but mean something else entirely when placed in actual usage. Take snatch, for instance. I love snatch. See what I mean?
Whether something is snatched up, snatched from or snatched down, I just like the speed the word implies when used as a verb. But just putting it down by itself as I did in the last paragraph invites its other use as a noun and a vulgar usage that is indeed. Sort of a Rorschach test using words.
Then there are the more simple words that I love, particularly those that can denote completely different things depending on how we use them. Common is such a word, although it is a first cousin to ubiquitous, a much fancier word to be sure. But that highfalutin expression cannot go the distance with the more common common, so to speak, when it comes to versatility.
Common is closely related to community and frequently used to identify places and spaces where people intersect. Seeking the common good, finding common ground and having a friend in common all express connection and inclusion. (Poor inclusion—that one’s been getting beat up in some quarters these days.) All in all, a very good thing.
But then, Mother could use common like a potato peeler, a scalpel or a Samurai sword. To be rather common meant undistinguished, while real common meant being distinguished for mediocrity. Below that was dead common. One need not be southern to distinguish those shadings.
Vulgar is another one of those words, which like its cousin common, can be dressed up or down, depending on the accessories one uses with it. It can mean being rather coarse or crude, but it can go the other direction and mean showy or excessive. Vulgarisms or profanities, on the other hand, can have a proper place at the language table, particularly in these troublesome times.
Personally, my favorite and least favorite vulgarisms have a couple of things in common. They are both four-letter words, and they both begin with the letter “F.” I could go the rest of my life without hearing my least favorite and not miss a thing, and I certainly would never have the occasion to use it myself. But I can hardly go a day, sometimes an hour in rough times, without using my favorite one.
I love my favorite one because it is so versatile. It can be turned into a noun so easily just by adding an -er to it, sending the one it is aimed at to purgatory. For added condemnation, throw a maternal reference in front of it to increase exponentially one’s level of revulsion.
But the word that is rapidly moving to the top of my most disliked list is volatility. When we are younger, it seems we have more tolerance for volatility. Some of us even choose a certain volatility just to spice up the romance game when we’re single. We can go through volatility in our careers and personal lives, even with health and financial crises with the aplomb that youth often provides.
But for many folks these days, those of us who are more than young and less than dead, the expression “market volatility” is challenging our sense of restfulness, which is the hallmark of good breeding.
Why is this happening? Well, the who is behind it is easy, but the why is much harder to discern. Despite the speculation that changes from day to day, opinion volatility so to speak, I suspect only the who knows for sure.
What should we do? Well, if that question means buy, sell or hold, that is above my pay grade, as it is for most of those offering free advice on social media. It is worth exactly what you paid for it.
My recommendation is to keep one’s favorite vulgarism close at hand. Its repeated usage can be downright therapeutic in these volatile times.
