Is this thing on?

Whaddya know? I actually made it on to a blog! I bypassed the hesitations, the whims on fancy, and actually committed to it. I commend me. To the seasoned blogger or even blog reader what’s the big deal? Well I’ll tell ya – when you’re all talk and no action any small achievement is the summit of the mountain. And now onto the device…

I’ve always fancied the word “ennui”. I came across it years ago (age dating) while in high school, flipping through the pages of a dictionary instead of listening to whatever the teacher was trying hard to impress on my young mind. Yes, flipping through as in an actual page bound book that would require knowledge of alphabet placement in order to retrieve meaning of said word, not in the current tech speak of Google entry [define: ennui].

I treasured that dictionary and still have it. The Pocket Oxford Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Thirteenth Impression of 1976 became an educational must have hand-me-down from a much loved older brother whose name is still imprinted in it and has traveled with me through the moves of my years. Looking up ennui in it now I find it ensconced between énnô’ble and énôrm’ous

ennui (ón’wê) n. Feeling of boredom. ennuyé a., bored. [F (Annoy)]

Today’s AskOxford.com just as succinctly states

ennui

/onwee/

• noun listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from boredom.

— ORIGIN French, from the same Latin base as ANNOY.

Its initial revelation seemed quite ápropos and has stuck with me throughout life as a perpetual shroud of ennui in most situations I find myself in. Though in latter years the listlessness and dissatisfaction seem to have obscured simple boredom.  No matter the mental or physical stimulation, somehow, someway it all leads back to ennui. And now it has led me here.

Will this experience of blogging bring a cathartic relief to pent up frustrations, unrealized hopes, or the need to have a 3rd item in a list? Probably not but what the heck it’s worth a shot. So my imaginary friends, I welcome you on this journey of mundane ramblings and I ask you to excuse my ennui along the way. 🙂