Words...

There are "fad" words. At any given time there are some words or phrases that, if used correctly define you as hip...or if used incorrectly, or after their 15 minutes have expired, define you as an affectatious dork. "Mad" comes to mind-meaning "lots of", or "a minute"-meaning some undefined, but longer than a minute, length of time, as in "I haven't seen him in a minute". Being closer to dork than hip, I am unable to site the most-current, leading edge examples. Some expired fad words or expressions (still heard from some afore mentioned folks) are "...at the end of the day..." (actually still used alot, but the equivalent of holding a banner that says "I'm trying to sound smarter than I am"); "You go girl", which, hopefully the incoming administration will ban by executive order within the first 100 days; "back in the day..." which is the same as having a Joe Dirt haircut; and Time magazine's Word of the Year for '06 (well, it would have been if there were such a thing)-"proactive".

A former coworker comes to mind, who is on everybody who ever knew him's list of "Most Annoying People", who could use 2 or 3 hip-words-du jour in a single sentence, and would do so, with the same words or phrases, 10 times or more in a single day. This fellow calculated who was listening-whom do I most wish to impress-with every utterance. When our black General Manager was within earshot he talked "hood"-"Aunt" suddenly rhymed with "font"; "is" would occasionally be replaced with "be"; "talking" became "talkin' ", and he would adopt a black-preacher cadence and rhythm-think Obama speech (he was, though, quite white).

There are also words that, at a given time, are in the front row, center seat, of our minds...words that seem repeatedly applicable to goings on in our lives...which bring me, at long last to a point. My word du jour is "authenticity". I am enrolled in a group that bills itself as pursuing Authentic Manhood. I suppose that's why the word "authenticity" has moved from the balcony seats to the front row. But I, of late, find the concept, the trait, most desirous in others, and a ruler for measuring my own conduct. The word is probably best defined by it's synonyms-honest, real, unpretentious, sincere. Almost synonymous-dependable, do-what-say-you-are-going-to-do, promises kept, exhibiting what you espouse or advocate. It's definitely not being a chameleon like the non-authentic former coworker. Authentic authenticity is rare, attractive, a goal worth pursuing, and my word du jour.