MORE WORD CHOICES THAT ARE JUST SO NOW ... OR WAS THAT YESTERDAY?

JOURNEY -  Everything you experience is your journey.  Journey used to be long episodes of travel, across mountains, deserts, or oceans and entail strange foods and weird cultural customs, but now the pettiest things and the most horrendous things you experience all fall into your journey,

"She graduated college. What a journey!"

BATTLE - A battle until recently was a military operation in which two sides violently clashed.

Now Battle is used just about every time someone dies to explain that they were HEROIC.  I.e. the word CANCER seems to always be ASSUMED to be a BATTLE.  But what if you get diagnosed and you think "so it shall be" and you DO NOT BATTLE?  (I will respect you if you choose not to fight a disease.)  Another Battle is supposedly Alzheimer's.  Battle used with Alzheimer's assumes that the person could FIGHT their own deterioration.  Battle's as used to describe the horrific medical treatment some people endure is often used with the word LONG. 

"She died last week after a long battle with cancer."

FIGHT - Along with Battle, the word Fight, which used to be about having a verbal or physical altercation with another person or persons, in particular on the school yard, is used to explain all sorts of activities in which there isn't an opponent exactly, the activity is just difficult or stressful or taxing.  A few letters back and forth with the IRS qualifies.

"If she starts her own business, she's in for a fight."

WORD CHOICES THAT ARE JUST SO NOW ... OR WAS THAT YESTERDAY?

1) CONVERSATION : As a result of social media, such as Twitter, these days we suppose that ideas, notions, controversies, and news, is all up for discussion.  Some "conversations" go on for years, but most fizzle.  Like my favorite TA once said, "Sometimes it's good to let a conversation go."

"Are we still having a national conversation about the Democratic Candidates Debates?"

2) SEX PEST : This one is pre Jeffery Epstein scandal and Harvey Wienstein scandal. I personally believe it is United Kingdom lingo gratis Daily Mail UK.  SEX PEST is an umbrella term to describe everyone from the over-compliment-er who keeps "noticing" what you wear to work or whose eyes linger noticeably too long, to a hands on sexual harasser, to a stalker. There is however, a slight sense of humor to the term, so that Epstein and Wienstein are overqualified for it. 

"That weird guy at the coffee house is such as sex pest, he should get a life."

3) CLOSURE : Closure is B.S.  It is assumed that the most horrific losses that result in grief will end when you have "closure" but this is rarely so and puts a false expectation that you will be done already with it.  One of my personal most hated terms, probably spawned by an overly psychobabble-effected culture.

"They lost everything, their house, everything in Hurricane Dorian. When they get a roof over their head again, they'll get closure."

4) GET A MOTEL : Used to let people know their Public Displays of Affection are making you uncomfortable or that if they don't want you wish to join in.  Upgraded to the more posh GET A HOTEL or locally, CHATEAU MARMONT.  Best delivered with deadpan intonation and raised eyebrow.

"Ah, you three should really go to the Chateau."

C 2019 Christine Trzyna