words etc.

There are no adjectives left.

Great, wonderful, terrific, fantastic - cha! our grandparents were wearing out these words years ago.  "Incredible," after being misused, became so overused as to be meaningless.  "Awesome," was a giant that fell hard.  The culture, mainly writers for magazines like Atlantic Monthly or New Yorker or Slate or Salon, the hundreds or thousands of writers desperately wanting to break out, to distinguish themselves, have bastardized every emphatic or superlative in the English language; snatched them from on high and remolded them, cheapened them, yea even prostituted them, for their common momentary need.

Take the word 'epic.' This word, a superlative of sorts, is applied commonly to pizza, monster trucks, intestinal gas, smartphone apps.

'Gargantuan' was used for a while in the 80's, but was considered too clumsy.  Lollapalooza may have the same fate, as it seems to be used only by marketeers.

Oh, there are so many tiresome others.  Massive. Radical. Kick ass. Tubular. Way. 

I read about the snow storms in the northeastern states last week referred to as 'snowpocalypse.' And one may read about someone having their first encounter with an iPad as an 'apotheosis.'

What's left?

You know what this is?  Consumerism, applied to words. We are consuming these words, sucking the life/meaning out of them, and then tossing them aside. For example, who can use the word 'radical' anymore? or 'incredible'? No one even knows what incredible means anymore.

Not only are we consuming the words, we are effectively banishing them from the common vocabulary, like Tamar kicked out of Amnon's bed of rape. Goodbye, 'extreme', 'intense', 'perfect', 'divine', sweet'. Done with you, now get out.

I started on this trail, because I was trying in vain to think of an adjective that describes my feelings about parenting. The sense that I have regarding the task of parenting, the ultimacy of the task, the burden on a father's shoulders, the responsibility...

the realization of what I've said that cannot be undone,

the likelihood of failure in today's social climate,

the singularity of purpose that exists in parenting, as if nothing else mattered in comparison, the sense that everything I do is really because of my children - the reason I work, endure insults and disappointments, endure business attire, advocate healthier food, buy a bigger house and car, the reason I scrape pennies together to put in a savings account, wear socks with holes, sweaters eaten by moths, the reason I dont buy myself a new computer or cooler car or take vacations alone with my wife, 

the reason I do battle with them - daily nagging them to do their homework, to do it well, to improve their handwritting and watch out for careless errors, insisting they get off the computer or the Xbox, setting and enforcing curfews not only for being out, but for cell phone use, jousting with them over dress code, parrying with them over sarcasm, thrusting, blocking, reposte-ing over grades, shoes, toothbrushing, belching, being tardy...

The adjectives no longer exist to describe my feelings about this, the sense of eternal moment, and the sense that I am an utter failure at my greatest, and only remaining calling.