40 Reflections #11: 40 days of raw recollections during the Lenten Season
“I like good strong words that mean something…”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
I adore language. If I hear a new word, I immediately research its meaning, plug it into a sentence, and test it out on anyone standing within two feet, or simply utter it loudly into the air, like a piece of pasta thrown at a wall to check for doneness. Our youngest loves weaving new words into his lingo as well, flagging the fancy terms by stating “good word” happy with the newest addition to his vocabulary.
I thought about the flexibility of words today in an interview with NBC’s Peter Alexander and Ivanka Trump, and how sometimes we only hear what our minds are thinking.
It went like this:
“Do you believe your father’s [sexual misconduct] accusers?” -Peter Alexander
“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” -Ivanka Trump
She went on, “I don’t think that’s a question you would ask many other daughters,” she said. “I believe my father. I know my father. So, I think I have that right as a daughter to believe my father.”
A discussion on the news followed this exchange. The analyst stated she understood why as a daughter, Ivanka would feel she should support her father and that was “laudable”.
Now remember, I’m listening to the news, and am in my constant Dump Trump mode. Therefore, when the word “laudable” came over the radio waves, I heard instead: “A LOT OF BULL”. Agreeing loudly, I said, “That’s right it is!” Then I replayed the conversation in my mind and realized, although “A lot of bull” fit perfectly into the conversation puzzle in my mind, the word was actually “laudable” or admirable.
Words can be interpreted in many ways. In this mom’s opinion, “a lot of bull” was a much better description of Ivanka Trump’s support of her father’s behavior than “laudable”.
Even though Ms. Trump is laudable for sticking by her father, Donald Trump remains an inappropriate, weak, and an ineffectual president. After all, everything he says is frankly “a lot of bull”.
