NEVER STOP CHANGING
Do you have a particular word that you know perfectly well how to pronounce properly, but also know that there's a mispronunciation lurking deep within your brain which is always likely to leap out at you unexpectedly? I have one that has it's own special annoyance. It was a word that was common when I was growing up, usually as an adjective for flooring or kitchen tablecloths. Then it seemed to fall into disuse and I could feel comfortable knowing I probably wouldn't have to use it. Until, like a bad smell you thought you'd got away from, it made it's reappearance. Now with a brand new meaning that seems to be everywhere. There was nothing wrong with record, or album, or LP, or 33, but they have all been superseded by my linguistic nemesis. Yes, the word is vinyl. Which I do know, really I do, should rhyme with spinal. So why does a part of me want it sound like compile? I have no idea where that came from. I do know it will always be there within me, and care will always have to be taken...
A few months ago I posted on here about 2022 being the year when I started to feel properly old, due to some physical health issues that have sprung up, and the consequent treatment. Sooner or later, it's something we all have to face up to, in some form or other, as the years pass. And I have to admit that my mental abilities maybe aren't all they once were either. A bit slower to process information sometimes, a bit more forgetful. My driving certainly isn't what it used to be. All these things I accept as part of growing older.
But there's one aspect of ageing that isn't as inevitable as the above, and which I will fight off succumbing to with every facet of my over-the-hill mind and body. I don't know what the name for it is, but it's that mysterious and insidious visitor that leads older people into bigotry, brexshit and Daily Fail reading. The ones who think that growing up with ice on the inside of their bedroom windows never did them any harm. The ones who imagine there's some strange force that's not allowing them to say Merry Xmas. (And who rant against people who use that 'X'...) The ones who don't want people who "aren't like us" to have any rights. Who think immigrants should be "sent back where they came from", that anyone reliant on social security for their food and housing needs "to get a proper job" and that the BBC has become "woke" (even if they don't know what it means).
No thanks. That's not a road I ever intend to head off on, for the only end points are irrational fear and unwarranted hatred. I'll stick to becoming more left wing as I age, more convinced that Scotland needs to go it alone, and more in favour of extending human rights to marginalised groups like trans people.
But I can see how so many of my contemporaries end up heading towards the dark side.
