"Look - they're letting me leave the country. I wonder if they'll let me back in!"

No Rest For The Weird

Well, I’m back at home in Beebe, and things are back to their normal pace – hectic. I’m not complaining one bit, no sir!

We just wrapped up a week of Vacation Bible School that the Garner & McRae United Methodist Churches did in combination this year. Julie led the summer fun, but half a dozen other folks came every night to pitch in, and we averaged about fifteen kids each evening. Awesome!

I want to thank all of the following kids for coming, and if you see any of ‘em, why you just congratulate them on their efforts: Angel Barnes, Hunter Bennett, Lolli Hill, Nelson Howell, Paige Howell, Brenda Jean Kelsey, Shelby Langley, Tatum Mixon, Bailey Mixon, Katy Pacheco, Ron Pacheco, Jasper Shores, Jacus Shores, Ryan Swafford, Riley Swafford and Rob Swafford.

These kids did an extra-special job of raising enough quarters to complete a project with Heifer International, and their efforts will go towards helping a poor family in a foreign country start a livestock project.

“Who You Callin’ Heifer?”

Now hold on just a minute! Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of Heifer International. Why, their international headquarters is right here in Central Arkansas! They just built a “State of the art” building in downtown Little Rock (right across the street from the Clinton Presidential Park) that is so environmentally friendly that it’s won architectural awards.

You want to know more? Well, go take a look at www.heifer.org.

..err, I meant “Weary”

It got rather boring in Africa, without the regular pressures of my “normal” life, and without the distractions that can so easily fill our days. When things were slow in Tanzania, the guys in my villages sat around and played “draughts”, which is the English version of checkers. I was real tempted to clear off those little, plastic bottle caps they were using for checkers, and set up my own chess pieces on their board. It was a constant temptation, but I was already “standing out in a crowd” and didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself. Besides, I don’t think they’d have taken too kindly to my interrupting their pastime.

They had a lot of that “pastime” – with an average annual income of just $250 (less than a dollar a day), and an unemployment rate estimated at over 20% (over 40% for young adults). No unemployment insurance, government student loans, welfare and only government assistance for a few critical illnesses… if you were well and without opportunities for employment, you’d have lots of “pastime” too.

Maybe that’s why I work at the pace I do. Some folks might call it “work”, but I like to look at it as “opportunities”. We have so many opportunities around us, even here in the depressed economy of the Delta, that it just seems a shame to waste them.

It probably goes back to that old guilt trip my parents laid on me when I didn’t want to eat all my dinner, “Why, those starving kids in Korea would LOVE to have those lima beans to eat.” “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

2 Timothy 2:14

“Nag”

Dictionary.com defines “nag” as a verb: “1. to annoy by persistent faultfinding, complaints, or demands.

2. to keep in a state of troubled awareness or anxiety, as a recurrent pain or problem:

–verb (used without object)

3. to find fault or complain in an irritating, wearisome, or relentless manner (often fol. by at): If they start nagging at each other, I'm going home.

4. to cause pain, discomfort, distress, depression, etc. (often fol. by at): This headache has been nagging at me all day.

–noun

5. Also, nagger. a person who nags, esp. habitually.

6. an act or instance of nagging.

With a definition this… definite, I do not believe any further example is in order.

“Nag-ative”

Now, let’s add the first suffix and see where it leads us:

Suffix -ative 1. of, related to, or associated with the thing specified.

Example: Nagative – “If I don’t get this column written on time, it will surely become a nagative”, meaning “something that i will be nagged about, or something that will add to the nagging I receive”.

A nagative might also be something that gets added to your “honey-do” list, or even something that you burden yourself with, such as an added responsibility that you are having trouble meeting. Example: “I’m having a hard time scheduling that appointment I promised to make. It is becoming a real nagative.”

“Nagativity”

Finally, let’s combine yet another suffix and see where it leads us.

Suffix -ity 1. Used to form a noun from an adjective; especially, to form the noun referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.

Are you with me still? Then you MUST be bored! But please, read on!

Nagativity must, by these clear and simple definitions, mean, “the state or characteristic of an action or idea that reflects the potential for nagging of that action or idea.”

Example: Nagativity – “The negativity of my yardwork went way down this weekend when it started raining on Saturday morning… thank you Weather Channel!”

Okay, so I elaborated there at the end. I think you get the picture.

Therefore, chores or other responsibilities can all be measured by their “nagativity” – there potential for bringing about nagging of any sort.

Beware Of Misuse

Nagativity is often misused in place of the word “NEGativity”, but sometimes the grammatical lines between the two are not so definite!

Mom: “What is wrong with you? You haven’t cleaned out the garage in years!”

Son: “Whoa! Why such nagativity all of a sudden? Like you said, it HAS been years...”

Ah, the subtleties of language.

If you have any Palmisanoisms you would like to offer, I would be happy to review them and include them in future columns… if this one makes it past the editor!

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)