Good Morning Digital Friends & Neighbors! Happy Tuesday Supporters, Members, and Visitors to this little hole in the wall. More fun with words from Epic English Words by Mr. Devoe. On to the vocabulary lesson with some borrowed words from our French neighbors.

*Alamort - totally exhausted; half-dead from fatigue. From the French a' la mort "to the death"

If you are doing something worthwhile, feeling alamort is one of the best feelings you can ever experience. The are few experiences of being tired that are more satisfying. Conversely, if you are forced to do something that is not worthwhile, few things are more frustrating. Much of modern boredom is self-inflicted, but the one real exception is in the realm of compulsion.

When we are forced against our will, the boredom meter starts running. Boredom is not the only meter running, frustration and rejection begin their own slow creep. I am not a fan of forcing individuals to do much of anything against their will, but they also have to accept the consequences of what they choose to do by their own choice. My father's uncomplicated wisdom: when you live with the consequences of your choices, you are an adult. When you pay for your choices, when you live with the reputation you earned or ruined, when you have to deal with the emotional drama you helped create (intentionally or accidentally) you are an adult. Thinking about all that can make one feel emotionally alamort. Perhaps that is why maturity is a shrinking island in our culture.

Apercu - a clever insight; an initial view or rapid survey; [French]

Got Twitter on my mind. It promised to be a platform of rapid , simple communication. Perhaps a place where apercu could happen with greater clarity that other sites that demand you sell your life to read drag-ass articles from people who get paid by the word. Fort a few generations influenced by Sesame Street rapid fire info, it was a natural thing. Twitter, great for quick news, pithy witticisms and clever humor at its inception.

Once Twitter become the playground of journalist and other soulless egos, it became a trolling zone for the Blue Checks and a battlefield in the culture war. For the Intolerant Open-Minded (you know who they are and what they espouse - the hypocritical acceptance cancelers.) it became a place where those who hurt the feelings, made them feel stupid, or effectively poked humor at the sacred cows of the Intolerant Open-Minded got cancelled. Shadow banning was the first experiment, and then removal was the next step. The Intolerant Open-Minded are not people of courage, but they are bold when gathered in mobs and feel safe in numbers. They typically resent anyone with actual apercu. They typically hate the clever, and they drain life off the the creatives they claim as their "tribe." Their main currency is anger and compulsion. Yield or face destruction. Sounds open-minded to me. 😉

One of the best rules for EGO identification is how easily and readily offended one feels. I am not saying we should never feel offended, but the era of thick-skins and Teflon wills is fading in the review mirror. The easily offended and perpetually offended are some of the most tiresome people to give any attention. They suck the joy out of life, they demand unquestioned acceptance while in the same breathe constricting your freedom and condemning your disagreement. No apercu there. Once again one faces alamort when dealing with our disconnected neighbors who advocate for or live among the acceptance-cancelers.

Spring-barn taken by Cindy-Wright (Those little purple flowers, Grape Hyacinth, are my favorite Spring flower. So small and they smell the BEST!!)