foibles

If you think this is one of those weird missives about words that I think are odd or seldom used - - you are right. ‘Foible’ is an interesting word and one of its meanings is - a quirk or eccentricity of character. Some individual foibles in certain folks are hard to detect but with others this is not so difficult. In fact, some folks are thought to be absolutely, cotton-pickin’ nutso, when all they have are some very easily detected foibles. None of these weird things will be named or described just in case someone out there might think that I am talking about them – or me.

A ‘fallacy’ is a deceptive, misleading, or false notion or belief – or a misconception. This would include any of various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically unsound. An example of a fallacious argument would be – since I tripped over a child’s toy, fell down the stairs and broke my arm in two places (the other place was in the kitchen) on Tuesday, then it stands to reason that we will have weather every Tuesday.

To ‘fidget’ is to move about restlessly, nervously, or impatiently. This brought a couple of questions to my mind. First, is fidgeting only on the physical plane or can it be mental or even in the emotional arena? But then maybe fidgeting is strictly limited to the internal and the physical signs are only the external symptoms? Secondly, what is the opposite of fidget – or do we always fidget inside with thoughts running helter-skelter – with the physical evidence of it being more controlled at times?

Interesting also is the word ‘friable’ and even though the sound of it is such, this is not descriptive of one of the ways chicken could be cooked. The word is an adjective meaning that something is easily crumbled or reduced to powder, usually referring to some physical material. To me this word could also apply to the hopes or dreams of humankind, which are so easily and often crumbled into dust.

When I thought of the word ‘forest’, all kinds of weird thoughts and questions cascaded across my mind. For example – if the forest suddenly turned into nothing but trees, would they all leave? Or if all the leaves left, what would be left for composting? Or if a leaf fell in the middle of the forest would it ever leave? Then a semi-related word ‘fragrant’ – would anything really be fragrant if there was no one there to smell it?

Then there is ‘fate’. When our lives are lived out in the belief that nothing we do – good or bad – can alter the end results of our lives, this leads to hopelessness and folks not caring how they live their lives. My preference of belief is that our choices are the determiners of what happens to us, most especially those made in the spiritual.

This brings us to probably the most powerful word in any language – forgiveness. The only true forgiveness is available from God for the asking, this because He truly loves us, whether we are lovable or not. The only true love in this world is not only from God but He is the personification of love. ec