Gr/mumblings
One of the features of the (American – and presumably ? English) English language is the use of multiple meanings of words in indiscriminate and unclear fashions. An example of this is the word “diet”:
1 the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
2 a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves to lose weight or for medical reasons.(Tenth Oxford Concise Dictionary)
The problem I have with this is that I tend to use the word with its first meaning, while too many of the people I talk to use the second meaning.
I suspect I was exposed to the scientific usage too much in my formative years, but for whatever reason, I look at diet as something one does/has so long as one continues to metabolize. Such may suffer punctuated changes over time, but it is a fact of existence.
For others, it seems that a diet is some sort of transitory, temporary penance or adventure they are either visited with or embarked upon. Somehow, that seems rather dreary, as if they have been visited by deity to atone for their sins or undertake some cosmic undertaking. One immediately wonders if they are suffering from dementia and whether it will be temporary or not.
Happily, consideration indicates that it is usually, not always, not dementia but something milder, a combination of egotism and ignorance. Given the success of so many restaurant chains purveying physiologically detrimental meals, one is forced to conclude that Joe/Jane Consumer is blissfully unaware of how unhealthy their diet (1) is, but when the supersized portions and the continual consumption of “comfort” food comes to its natural result, they are confronted with either accepting their physical, as well as mental, obesity or of diet (2). From this, we may conclude that their only periods of conscious thought are when they have become unattractive?
The magnitude of this discovery is astonishing. Surely Newton envisioned gravitation because of the ugly bump on his head? Einstein formulated Relativity because of the gibes from his fellow passengers on the street trolley referring to his haircut? Clearly, diet(2) and creativity go hand in hand.
