In a Word

[Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and do not play one on TV. When performing this experiment make sure it is in the spirit of fun and fulfillment.]

This is a test.  No thinking allowed!  By doing so may actually impede your response.  Your answer must come from the gray area that lurks between impulse and sincerity where truth and honesty loiter.  Here goes, are you ready?

If you could pick one word, and just one word, that you feel describes you best what would it be?  (As in, if you were to look up the word in the dictionary, your picture would be right there next to the word that best expresses the essence of you.)

Knowing that you paused, even for a second to ponder a response, is against the rules.  Try again.

Not as easy as it sounds, is it?  When this word popped out of your brain and was transported through your mouth, what was the determining factor that was instantaneously used in the decision making process?  If you did this experiment spontaneously, you may not know, it was just there. But what you said may give greater insight to the significance of “you” than the word itself.  Through this single utterance, you are a journey of discovery to analyze the true meaning of yourself.  You may attempt this alone, or bring a friend, it is always much more revealing.  By embracing your inner word allows you to become one with the word and thus, one with the universe (okay, this may be a bit deep).

Let’s focus… was the aspect of your word: an opinion or stand (conservative, democrat, right wing) in politics? an overall general description using perhaps your physical attributes (buxom, boney, round, tall) of dimension, shape, size or weight? your age (young, geriatric, 47)? your families country (French? How bourgeois!) of origin? your job or career? (bouncer, engineer or beautician) and the occupational hazards associated with it?

Did you go the route of your perceived purpose (I am the mom!) and power (Because I still am the mom!)?  Or did you run rampant in the playground of adjectives to find the one that describes your notion of yourself? Sporty? Showy? Saucy? Swank?  I know a woman that depicts herself as “sassy” and it fits her to a “T”.  She is what she is and by no stretch of the imagination should sassy be taken in its negative connotation and be considered evil or bad but merely an observation of fact.

Shall we take this a step further?  What are the odds that the word you choose (or better, the word that chose you) would match the one word someone else would use to describe you?  This could be the true test of your face to the world, or at least the one you let the outside know of you.  Perception is 90% of the battle and what they see may be what they get.  Note to self: Good opportunity to do a quick “once over” and make sure you what you are putting out there is what you want others to decipher and pick up on about you.

Try this exercise in futility with friends, family and neighbors.  Take this opportunity to create some new words.  Different situations can offer a cornucopia and new meaning to our vocabulary, as we know it.  Hours of entertainment will ensue, as you stumble on the fact that you, as well as your loved ones may be more dimensional than one word allows them to be.

Cynthia A. McClelland, curious observer of the obvious with interpretations of the oddities of daily life.  Mother, wife and lover of the furry, resides in the north Lake Tahoe area.

Cynthia A. McClelland © 2003-