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I like to learn new words. It is a strange thing for a guy to admit maybe, but it\u2019s true. My Mom turned me on to Anu Garg\u2019s A.Word.A.Day web service when we moved back to my hometown in the summer of 2005.<\/p>\n
Mom knows I love to read, and she loves to play the board game SCRABBLE. Heck, all of her kids love to play that game! We used to have tournaments in an attempt to beat her at this wonderfully simple, yet stimulating word game. And don\u2019t let her Southern demeanor fool you: she is one tough competitor and doesn\u2019t like to get beaten.<\/p>\n
Figuring that having moved within 15 minutes of her I might have to face her in a SCRABBLE contest, I signed up for Anu Garg\u2019s service. Naturally, I had no problem doing this because it was free (read no cost<\/em> and painless to do so. I get sent words and definitions of neat and obscure words and phrases. And sometimes I get sent something weird like the word that landed in my inbox this morning. It wasn\u2019t the word that was weird, but everything around it. Here she is:<\/p>\nAmour-propre <\/em>or amour propre.<\/em> Ahhh . . . one of those wacky French \u201cphrase words\u201d that make you feel smart (if you aren\u2019t French). And it has a very interesting meaning:<\/p>\nNoun: Self-esteem; self-respect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Cool! How do you use it in a sentence, I wonder? This is what I like best about Wordsmith.org. Anu shares a real-life example. Even cooler! So here we go\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cDiaghilev was always happy to trample on the feelings of his colleagues if he thought that the outcome merited it, and at different times we see Fokine, Benois, Bakst, and Nijinsky all desolated by jealousy and injured amour-propre.\u201d\u2014Luke Jennings, \u201cA Tyrannical Genius,\u201d The Observer<\/em> (London, UK), Oct 25, 2009.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat is that<\/em> all about? Who knows? But one thing is for sure. This Diaghilev is one way cool dude or dudette (can\u2019t say, so let\u2019s pretend both). Right? Trampling on the feelings of not their workers, not their bosses, but wait for it . . . their peers! I love working with people like that, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_dmDaLWNETzg\/SxUYTDnuRBI\/AAAAAAAAAlY\/QaBKs3gTK2I\/s200\/Napoleon\")
<\/a>Sheesh! Talk about disordered amour-propre!<\/em> The Diaghilev Twins are wreaking all kinds of havoc! I\u2019d call them thieves <\/em>because they are stealing the joy right outta my workplace. That\u2019s bad for \u201cunit cohesion,\u201d any way you slice it.<\/p>\nThen I look at the article citation: Luke Jennings, \u201cA Tyrannical Genius\u201d . . . A genius and a tyrant, huh? Looks like another happy-go-lucky tyrannical genius is on the loose. Better consult my CIA fact book and see how many divisions he controls in his army. . . . Hmmm, no armies because \u201cLuke Jennings has written several novels and reviews dance for The Observer.\u201d Whew! That is my kind of tyrant!<\/p>\n
This new word-phrase of mine isn\u2019t keeping very good company. But it is showing what disordered self-esteem and self-respect look like! It doesn\u2019t get any clearer than this. Maybe Anu\u2019s A Thought of the Day<\/em> will salvage this mess and make it all right.<\/p>\nStrike One: The Diaghilev Twins
\nStrike Two: The Tyrannical Genius<\/p>\n
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: \u201cMan can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he\u2019s potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God.\u201d\u2014Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author (1903-1998)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m gonna have to call Strike Three on this one because, although the first third of Dr. Spock\u2019s quote makes sense (Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures), the rest of it just defines disordered amour-propre.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201c<\/em>Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d There is nothing \u201chalf-baked\u201d about this command.<\/p>\nSemper Fidelis<\/span><\/p>\n
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