If you are a Narnia fan (which everyone should be), then you are familiar with the concept of the Deplorable Word from the Magician's Nephew. Now that word would destroy like the entire planet. With nothing that melodramatic in mind, the deplorable word that keeps me up at night, that echoes in the recesses of my brain after I've had another one of my really great ideas, that threatens me every time I pick up a pen (or keyboard) to write is: "TRITE!".
I first encountered the word in Mrs. Harter's tenth grade English class. The larger the word was scrawled across the top of your paper, the lower your grade. I made it my personal mission to "write to avoid the trite".
Like the Instant Grow Sponge pills of the 80's, this fear of trite swelled to absorb other areas of my life. What if my career choice, or lack of one, was trite? What if the color scheme for my house was trite? What if my children's names were trite? What if my interests were trite? What if my whole life is trite?
An imposing grey tombstone comes to mind with Mrs. Harter's decisive script engraved across the smooth surface: TRITE!
In lucid moments I can see that my fear of amounting to nothing more than trite paralyzes me into almost guaranteed tritedom. So I'm blogging to communicate my fears to the swarming vacancy of the Internet in an attempt to overcome them. How trite.
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I, too, am a victim of Mrs. Harter's classroom. A quote from Mark Twain scrolled super script around the walls "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug."
I see this banner in my mind's eye as I sit at my keyboard each day. Is that the right word, I ask--or almost the right word? I'm sure this was the intended result of imparting the wisom, however, like you, I take it to the extreme. Would this field trip permission form sing just a bit more if I changed "Depart from the parking lot" to "embark from..?"
Would my grocery list pack more punch if I purchase scallions instead of onions? Am I typing right now, or blogging? In my torment, at times we embark nowhere or purchace nothing.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Harter well-intentioned instruction has proven at times to be utterly paralyzing.
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