4. Headlong

No more fucking around. I am to (and aim to) take this day on headfirst and headlong. Is that redundant? Let me check my computer-phone. Hmm. Okay, so: not necessarily. I mean, sure, the first entry of definition for “headlong” is simply “headfirst”, so I guess so, but that’s not all. According to a second entry, it also means to do something recklessly, so, like, yeah – wait, is that really what I meant? That I would take this day on recklessly? No. Yes! Yes: why not? I’ll be recklessly taking this day on, and while I will happen be doing so headfirst, I do not necessarily think that the two are related. Maybe a little, but even if I was taking this day on footfirst, I would still be reckless about it – that much I promise. Phew. Okay. There we go. Lastly, there is a third definition which reads as thus: “without pause or delay” and that is precisely what I initially had meant. But, well, hmm, okay, so now I’m wondering, is recklessness pretty much another word for “without pause or delay”? No: the other way around maybe. Doing something “without pause or delay” can be reckless, sure – I won’t deny this – but, the fact remains, that someone can still be reckless while pausing and delaying. So really, it’s like squares and rectangles. The latter is the former, but the former is not necessarily the latter – and even the reckless/no-pause-nor-delay model is not as concrete as that example, so there. Plus, let’s be real for a minute. Not even synonyms are ever really synonymous with anything, because the sound and look of a word or phrase, not to mention its socially and historically altered use and misuse, will imply and evoke different things. It’s all relative, anyway, so: yeah.

Great. That’s settled. Moving on.

(Additionally, as long as we have landed on synonyms and the imperfect nature of the word itself, I can’t stop thinking about “pause and delay”. If one were to say, “I will be taking this day on innocently and blamelessly,” it could be seen as redundant, sure, but really, despite their seeming similarities, one could be modifying the other, and really the phrase is less redundant and more elaborate, or elaborative – as in “to elaborate” [See what I mean? Even by referring to “elaborate” as both a noun and a verb, I signify different tones, modes and reactive meanings, despite their intrinsic relatedness.].)

In conclusion, I will be taking this day on headfirst, as if diving (but with my hands behind me or at my sides), and with an unrelated, extreme recklessness that also has little to nothing to do with the fact that this on-taking of the day will be performed in such a manner that refrains from both pauses and delays, which happen to be synonyms, but, regardless of this label, the two inform and suggest independent and unique meanings that will all be avoided equally. Here we go. No more fucking around.

 

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