A Curmudgeon's Conundrum

I like words.  I guess that is why I write BeeLine.

I especially like words that seem to convey their meaning even when you may have never heard the word before.  In thinking about this, it seems that a lot of these words begin with "c".

Chaos.

Curmudgeon.

Canoodle.

Of course, this all might be in my imagination because the fact is that once we learn something we cannot unlearn it. It stays with us.  It is impossible to go back and look at something the same way we did before we learned it.

Therefore, I think chaos perfectly represents complete disorder and confusion because that is what I have learned.  A curmudgeon is that old guy (Andy Rooney?) who always seems to be annoyed about something and it always will be. The guy and girl at the end of the bar who are cuddling and kissing are canoodling. But did I really think that way before I added those words to my vocabulary/

Another similar word is conundrum. When I think of conundrum I think of something that is puzzling, confusing or even paradoxical.

With that in mind someone sent me the following email the other day with"Conundrum" in the subject line.  I don't know who the original author was of this piece but it does raise some interesting points to consider.

Here it is exactly as I received it.

A conundrum....very strange

The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.

Here are six Conundrums of socialism in the United States of America:

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.

Makes you wonder who is doing the math.

These three, short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:

1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.

And here's another one worth considering...

2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money? What's interesting is the first group "worked for" their money, but the second didn't. Think about it.....

and Last but not least,

3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.

Am I the only one missing something?

Add me to the list.  All of this is a conundrum to this curmudgeon as well.

What about you?