"You're awesome!"

Let’s keep this definition game rolling here for a minute.

It’s 8:14am and thus far “you’re awesome” has been said twice to me.  How great it would be to stroke my ego and say “oh yes, it’s well deserved” but instead I’ll go with honesty and say “it’s not.”  Awesome means:  inspiring awe.  And this morning, I can’t admit to having done that.

Awesome.  Something we say describing people, places or things.  Or in exultation and excitment.  ”That is SOOOOO awesome!”  ”That went awesomely!”  ”Awesome, you’re here!” ”That is pure awesomeness!”

But what does it mean?  It’s almost a game when people say it.  ”You’re awesome!”  after I hand over a freshly made cup of tea.  Hmm, does that mean your taste-buds are doing cartwheels and they say ‘thanks!’ ??  I didn’t make the tea, the tea bag made the tea.  Someone put that tea in that bag.  From some farm and then it was packaged and driven miles upon miles to reach it’s final destination:  our cups.  But I don’t deserve ‘awesome.’  Maybe a “thank you.”  But that’s it.

And then there are those moments when you are jazzed, excited, filled with happy emotion.  Maybe upon completion of a challenging task and you’ve accomplished a life goal.  Someone slaps your hand, “HIGH FIVE” and you exhail saying “that was awesome!”  Was it more than that?  Was it remarkable (something we ‘remark on,’) was it extraordinary (something out of the ordinary realm) or was it awesome?

We overuse a small amount of words in our vocabulary (awesome, amazing, sweet, etc) and underuse a large amount of words.  In case you cared to know how many we, humans, underuse, consider knowing:  There are roughly 250,000+ words in the English dictionary.

Today when you want to say “AWESOME!”   Try:  Excellent.  Outstanding.  Wicked.  Astonishing.  Magnificent.  Wonderful.  Fabulous.  Fantastic.  Spectacular.  Sensational.  Marvelous.

Astound the extraordinary!

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