Anyone who knows me well knows that I like words. I always have. In adulthood I received the wisdom that, "never judge someone for mispronouncing a word, they probably learned it through reading" and that was very much the case for me. I mispronounced so many words because I had not heard them spoken, but only read them. Years of "cally ope" and "ah ree" "fack ade" and so on. I've since learned the correct pronunciation for calliope, awry, and facade, among others.
But this is not about uncommon or less used words. In fact this is about overused words, or words that have been made nearly meaningless by their ubiquity. My special irritation right now is Journey.
Whether it is the current Olympiad, professional sports, or (yuck) reality TV, everyone is on a "journey", "I'm so glad to have you on this journey", "his journey from an impoverished background to the NFL/NBA/MLB has been a long and challenging one" "her journey has taken her from a frozen pond to the world stage". A quote from my days as a competitive lifter, attributed to Arnold Schwarzenegger (also to Arthur Ashe) was "success is a journey, not a destination". And the inspirational Olympic success stories of triumph over heartbreak and despair get a bit old after a while.
Why must we mythologize success? Journey is travel. As a noun it is the physical act of going from one place to another. As a verb, it is that act of traveling. I suppose that the overuse of this word is due to the "trip" one takes from one state of mind or being to another. But it seems to be a convenient way to collapse the effort of working from one state, mental or physical, to another. It cheapens the effort required to work toward a goal. The journeys taken in these other contexts often have no goal, or an uncertain goal based on chance. The athlete who does not make it to the next level has a goal, but has the journey been in vain? We all grow from our efforts, but not all efforts are "journeys", many are internal acts of seeking improvement. Physical, intellectual, personal, spiritual.
There are far too many words to limit them to a few. And far too many acts of self improvement and grow that do not, in my mind, constitute a journey.
