That Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Now, there was an articulately insightful guy.
"Music", he wrote long ago, "is the universal language of mankind."
Most music lovers, one hazards to guess, would be down with that.
Musicians, most especially, would buy the premise.
I'm a musician. Have written, to date, a few hundred various and sundry pieces of music, jingles, songs and/or unfinished chunks of what I'm confident would have turned out to be critically acclaimed, award winning, sold out for the next two years Broadway masterpieces.
If I had, you know, actually ever finished them.
When it comes to the discipline required to turn the blank sheet music page into a critically acclaimed, award winning sheet music page...let's just say I ain't no Lin Manuel Miranda.
So, tunesmith hasn't exactly been one of the more diligently pursued of my life pursuits.
Wordsmith, meanwhile?
Now there's a pastime for which I've manged to muster a little more stick-to-it-iveness.
As evidenced, if by nothing else, by the very words you are reading as you read these very words.
And it occurs to me that the observation of Mr.Wadsworth the Wordsmith, there, might be fair and reasonably tweaked a little to underscore an opinion to which I've subscribed for a long time.
Language, I'd offer you, is the universal music of mankind.
See what I did there?
And without spending valuable time, letters, words and sentences pointing out the obvious logic of my little juxtaposition there, let me finish the original thought with a supplemental thought.
If language is, in fact, the universal music of mankind, then there's, inevitably and unfortunately, a lot of really annoying shitty songs out there.
All due respect to Mariah Carey and her recent undeniably embarrassing effort to stay hip and groovy in the kids' eyes with this "GTFO" nonsense. (Parents, you'll want to either Google to decipher the acronym or just ask the nearest six year old)
After all, I'm not talking about literal songs here anyway. I'm talking about language, words, sentences, paragraphs, "songs" only in the metaphorical sense.
Which brings us to "phrases".
And a whole batch of those terms, or just words, that, currently, as opposed to setting our toes a tapping, send our teeth a-grinding and our fists a-clenchin'.
Let's run down our top five this week, cats and kitties........
5. Cray cray---the term has just as many syllables as the actual word and by using the actual word, you don't sound like a moron.
4. Literally---as in, "...it's not even autumn yet and that old oak tree in my front yard has dropped, like, literally a million leaves already"....okay, first of all even if we cut a little slack and concede that an actual million leaves could, in fact, fall from just one tree, the means necessary to authenticate that number is, at best, impractical....oh and, like, this, like, other grating little habit of, like, you know, using the word "like" after, like, every couple of, like, words, is, like, annoying all on its own...it's exhausting having to remind you of that....I mean, like, we've talked about this, like, more than a million times...literally.
3. Just sayin--let's be straight up with each other, okay? This is simply an attempt to end run being rude and/or obnoxious by throwing in a little wanna-be disclaimer at the end. "...wow, that Kim Kardashian sure has a fat ass...just sayin."
2. sorry..not sorry---this is a relatively new entry in our countdown....we've made it our pick of the week, probably headed for the top of the charts...evenutally...the term is fairly self explanatory but, for purposes of definition, allow me to throw a couple of generational applications at you....the term is a three word version of the very effective one word expression "psyche!".....if you're a little older, the word sorry is the football and the words "not sorry" are Lucy yanking it away as Charlie Brown comes a kickin'. In that example, of course, you would be Charlie Brown.
And....at number one on the charts for a record smashing ninety consecutive weeks.......
1. Trump base.
Yeah, that one is going to be number one for a while yet. If only because we seem to hear it a lot.
An awful lot.
Awful as in "awful calamity", not as in "a whole bunch".
It certainly does meet one criteria, in particular, that qualifies it for our list. The mere sound of it sets teeth to grinding and fists to clenching.
And repeated hearings just exacerbate the grinding and clenching,
Trump base. Trump base. Trump base. Trump base. Trump base.
I think there was even a little sphincter tightening by that last one there.
It's number one on the list of overused and egregiously annoying because of the frequency with which it is inflicted upon us.
But, there are more primal reasons why it's a thorn in the paw of our vocabulary.
First, it symbolizes and represents the very worst of all the things in human nature that can be charitably, but spot on correctly, labeled "not good".
Bigotry, prejudice, misogyny, hypocrisy, demagoguery, racism, sexism, intolerance, religious persecution, fearmongering, fear pandering, ignorance, lack of education, lack of sophistication, lack of simple understanding of simple concepts and, more insidiously, lack of deeper understanding of more complex concepts.
Like freedom...and liberty....and rights.
And, here's yuuuge one.
Rule of law.
Trump base is, even if inadvertently, code.
The code word given to a demographic currently living in the same space and breathing the same air as those of us who don't buy the idea that hatred and selfishness and disrespect and/or destruction of sacred American institutions and values is the answer to any problem, let alone the myriad problems that a nation, any nation,this nation, faces as it exists and evolves.
A demographic that, two years in and two years no wiser for it, still clings to the desperate, ultimately doomed to fail dream and/or wish and/or hope that a petty, insecure, vindictive, borderline illiterate whose entire life has been a textbook example of the side effects of a totally self absorbed personality can, for one second, accomplish anything as president of the United States beyond ending up in the history books as having proven the theory that for every group of 45 men, there is, at least, one man who simply doesn't belong.
At all.
Under any circumstances.
But that's not even the really pointy part of that vocabularic thorn.
The really pointy part is that the Trump base is, in at least some very critical aspects, largely an illusion.
There's no question that it exists.
But what "it" is, as opposed to some monolithic force of nature, without peer, all knowing, all seeing and impenetrable, destined to defeat all foes and vanquish all opponents, is nothing more than a group of people who cling, either in ignorance or stupidity or fear or even borderline desperation, to the hope, to the dream, to, simply, the need to believe that this petty, insecure, vindictive, borderline illiterate is the answer to their problems.
And the illusion being indulged outside the circle is that the Trump base has the will, desire, resources and savvy to insure that their idol of orange clay will not only be the be all and cure all for their problems, but will remain in power for as long as they and/or he decide that will be. And that their political "clout", as it were, is more than sufficient to insure that any politician hoping to achieve, or keep, elected office had damn sure better tow the line, pay homage to the king, give lavish praise to the Emperor's choice of new clothing.
"It's good thing, you done there, Donald....a real good thing..."
When, in the clear light of day, the vote tallies from two years ago tell a much, much different story.
A few thousand votes here, a few thousand votes there......
And there would be no Trump base.
For there would be no Trump.
Save for the petty, insecure, vindictive, borderline illiterate stiffing vendors and berating staffers and having the five letters of his name erected in as huge and gaudy a fashion as possible on every single piece of sky and/or land and/or wall he could hustle.
Trump base.
Does sound a little like a musical instrument, come to think of it.
But, what occurs at this point, is the third of the most primal reasons why this term offends those with the sense and decency to be offended.
Because the word "base" has the same meaning as another word.
Pedestal.
Idols, kings, queens, even history's greatest contributors and benefactors might deserve to be placed on one.
Presidents?
Not so much.
And certainly not, ever, this president.
Just sayin'.
Oh.
And should you be one of those who finds offense in what I've shared with you here.
Sorry.
And...you know the rest.
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