Our prompt for today is the word “Sentimental“: one of many words which occur on a long list of adjectives which will never be used to describe me.
Sentimental is often applied to gestures made where one can see an exaggeration due to feelings of nostalgia, sadness or tenderness.
I don’t.
I took some flowers into a colleague once when she turned 80 but bearing in mind the uniqueness of this event, I don’t think this weas disproportionate.
Sentiment seems to be more to the fore these days with mass shows of sympathy for folk often unknown to the individual: flowers at a car crash site; and most of the nonsense on fac.ebook.
Genuine sentiment is swept away by the need to show oneself as a good person. Social Media groans with the clickable posts which usually begin “I know 99% of my friends will not leave a comment ….” on a picture of a three legged puppy or some such.
The truth in these cases is that the post-er is looking for validation from the number of “likes” and comments left. The proof of this is that a little research often shows that the item shown, be it missing person or animals requiring rehoming or lost child is either grossly out of date or has been factually changed to present a “new” story as “clickbate”.
Again social media is helping folk to salve their conscience. Rather than pay real money to support a charity, they can just click and feel better about themselves.
So, sentimental? If you are, then good luck to you. Just be careful about what you say or do when you’re swept away on a tide of emotion.
(bah humbug)
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
