How to Make Life Better with Words

• Whenever I’m lonely, I take my carpet, add a space and I have a car pet that I take with me on road trips.

Stray Thoughts

Twin trees on the sand at Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista, California

 

Twin Trees

You know those double trees that you see now and then? The twins that apparently grew from a single seed but immediately differentiated into what appear to be two independent trees? They are great examples of the dichotomy between individual and group life. We are all like those trees. In fact we are those trees. All life on Earth is composed of living cells, sometimes specialized to function with others in a larger organism. Everything that makes us up – all the matter and energy – is recycled from other living beings and exchanged with others all the time. We are like the cells that make up our bodies, part of a larger life system we may not pay conscious attention to. Our brains have developed egos that can get in the way of understanding that we are not isolated; we are parts of a whole.

Brand New Words for the Mid-2000-Teens

Twitterror: A mistake on Twitter, like a post over 140 characters that gets cut off mid-sentence. (I twitterred, and now I look like an idiotwit.)

Nonunconventional Post

OK, we all know about the regular ‘ventions: intervention, convention, invention…. But what about the less conventional ‘ventions? Allow me to introduce some worthy, new  ‘ventions for your consideration:

Wordination

Iron is both an essential nutrient and a health hazard linked to heart disease and cancer. But they should have known about this contradiction – after all, iron forms the basis of the word ironic.