Tragedy

Joe Paterno died earlier today. By all accounts he was a fantastic football coach, a faithful father and husband and a philanthropist. He served Penn State for 60+ years and, according to many, accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish and more. He was 85 at the time of his death. With that in mind, his death is not a tragedy. The man had the luxury of accomplishing all he wanted to accomplish in his professional life and he was apparently loved deeply by his wife, children and grandchildren. Although his death is sad, as is the death of most, his death is, well, his death is part of life and death.

We are extremely lazy with our use of the English language. We use words easily and loosely without thinking through the gravity of the words we use. I certainly do not want to be cold or uncaring, but the use of the word "tragedy" seems to be a bit of an exaggeration. A tragic death is my friend Eric who died almost a year ago. He died in his early thirties, leaving behind a young wife and 4 month old son. That is a tragedy. A tragedy is an infant dying shortly after birth. A tragedy is a mother burying her son who died of heart complications shortly after his 4th birthday. Those things are tragic. But a man who lived well beyond the average life expectancy, who lived a life he was proud of is very sad, but is not a tragedy.

I am becoming more and more aware of how we use words. Perhaps it is because I have a young son who continually asks, "What does that mean?" Let us be careful with how we use words. Let us measure our words carefully and make them count. Let us concern ourselves with teaching our children to choose and use words carefully.

More to come...

Ten More Things I'll Never Understand

Lest you all think all my blog entries are serious...

10 More Things I'll Never Understand
1. Tattoos. Especially when grown-ups get tattoos of cartoon characters. Tattoos are forever people. Is that barbed wire around your bulging bicep going to look great when you are 70+ and your bicep isn't so bulging? Those barbs are going to be sagging!

2. Why I can give birth (twice) without pain meds and yet stubbing my toe makes me want to scream bloody murder.

3. Overgrown/long toenails. Gross.

4. Not brushing your teeth. More gross.

5. Why it seems that every celebrity has a perfume/cologne. Seriously, I don't care if Justin Beiber's perfume is the best scent in the whole world, there's no way I'd wear it! (FYI- I have no idea what his perfume smells like, but now that I've brought it up, I'm curious to smell it. Somehow I think it might be sickeningly sweet.)

6. Stirrup Pants. Also gross.

7. Lack of proper undergarments. Or, as Clinton Kelly says, "Don't force clothing to do the work of an undergarment." Genius.

8. Wearing undergarments as clothing. Again, gross.

9. The fact that I graduated from a well respected university with a very high GPA and yet I cannot figure out how to work most copiers. It once took me 20 minutes to make 5 copies. Ridiculous.

10. Unkempt mustaches. How absolutely disgusting is it when these unruly things get stuff caught in them? Very gross.