December Blog Dare: Fail

As you've noticed, I failed on my commitment to my December Blog Dare.  I figured I would simply because I was in Colorado for ten days in December.  I'm not stressed about it, but I would like to continue writing on some of the Blog Dare's writing prompts.  Here goes...

Thursday December 27th's prompt: An overused phrase.

Oh, man.  This one's an easy rant for me, but, first, let me start with a preface.  Do you guys remember when "awesome" was the key word used in a religious context?  It was about 10-12 years ago and very widely used in the non-denominational/fundamentalist Christian scene.  FCA, Campus Crusade, youth group gatherings, etc....everything was "AWESOME!"  God was an awesome God, life was awesome, god's work was awesome, fellowship was awesome, the Holy Spirit was performing awesome feats, the pastor's service was awesome....it was all AWESOME!  Ugh, it drove me craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy!  So much so that I have had a bad taste in my mouth regarding this grouping of phonetic sounds ever since.  As a result, I rarely say it, and I rarely use it in a religious setting.  I'll find any equivalent or more specific synonym to use in its place.

Well, that community wore down "awesome," and they have adopted "blessed."  AHHHHHH, everyone is so f#@%ing BLESSED, now!  They're blessed with family, they're blessed with their job, they're blessed with their spouse, the restaurant is blessed with good chefs, they're blessed with the weather (whether it be snow, rain, sun, or wind), they're blessed for being able to buy the new car they just got, they're blessed with vacation time, they're blessed with the new Pet Smart that came to town, their ipod was such a blessing on their road trip, he was blessed with hot cocoa on the cold wintry day, God blessed them with answered prayers and good fortune.  Blessed, I tell you....BLESSED!  I want to puke every time I hear the word.  I can go to certain people's pages on Facebook and find the word "blessed" in almost every post.  Bleh.

Here's the deal.  I'm not some horrible person who thinks God is not awesome or who believes we can't be blessed with fortunate circumstances and loving people.  The awesome fad was more of an annoyance due to it repetitive and blatant overuse, but blessed does start to bother me in a contextual way.  The word blessed is loaded with arrogance, in my opinion.  Why have you been "blessed by God" with a healthy newborn baby but the new mother holding her Down Syndrome baby was not blessed by God?  Why were you blessed with good fortune and others weren't?  Why were you chosen over the other person?

The whole topic just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  I hate when a word's richness becomes watered down by misuse and redundancy.  The word has died; it will never have the same affect on me it once did.