I promised you a brief essay on 'miasma'; yes, I did. Here's the backstory; words were a game in our home, ranging from one-upmanship to the lowest of the lowest humor (puns). Therefore, we all became excellent listeners of every single word spoken in the house.
One sunny day, Father returned from work, tossed his hat onto his corner of the kitchen counter, marched through the house without greeting anyone, and said, "No one speak to me! My mind in meshed in a miasma of darkness."
In unison, the other four of us said, "Miasma?" A scramble ensued for every dictionary, pc and thesarus in the house. Nothing on the face of the earth was more challenging to us than a 'new' word.
From his contextual use, we all knew 'miasma' was most likely not a good thing. And, indeed, we discovered that it is a mirky, foggy place to be. The other four of us, me and the three kids, quickly formed a pact: we would use the word 'miasma' at least once a day for the following two weeks. We did. It was fun. Lots of laughs. Just imagine it's use in reference to our daily lives---teachers, students, readings, thoughts. It was delicious.
Personally, I made a secret pledge to use the word at least once in every novel I ever wrote. Now, it's not a secret anymore.
But, my secret won't be real or revealed to you unless you read each of my novels! Soon as I get them out here, it will be up to you to do the word search.
Welcome to my playful world!
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