In Other Words

The Boy and I went to the barber shop this morning to get his hair cut, only to have the barber tell us that there wasn't anything he could do. You see, The Boy's hair is longish and he likes it that way, but apparently to keep it the way he wants it requires the expertise of a stylist rather than a barber. We live and learn. On the way home, The Boy invented a game for us to play. He called it the "Thesaurus Game". I'll think of a word, he said, and then we'll take turns coming up with synonyms for that word. A fun exercise for a writer, I thought. He chose the word "good". Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with synonyms for "good" off the top of your head? Go ahead, try it. I'll wait. Okay, so, it's harder than you thought, isn't it? You get about four or five and then after that you're scrambling. Now, utilizing the miracle of modern technology we call a word processor, I type in the word "good" and hit the thesaurus function. It spits out eight different meanings (high-quality, decent, enjoyable, skillful, helpful, nice, well-behaved and benefit). Each of those eight different meanings offers anywhere from five or six to ten different synonyms. When I write I try not to use the same words over and over again. I actually have two hard-copy, paperback thesauruses on my desk that I use in addition to the one on my computer. Peruse a tome. It's enjoyable and beneficial. =) JB