Anti-Disestablishmentarianism

Every once in a great while, somebody says something so completely unexpected and earth-shattering that it completely floors you.  It literally stops you in your tracks, forces you to take a much-needed breath, be present in the moment and refocus attention.  It also causes you to miss a few beats and require recovery time to get back in step. 

It’s a rare occasion that I encounter a person who can affect me this way.  I have taken multi-tasking to a ridiculous level over the last few years, and find it hard not to do several things at a time.  It isn’t something I recommend doing.  For me, it became necessity, because the efforts required of me exceeded the physical amount of hours in a waking day.  In order to meet all obligations simultaneously, I am the person spinning all the dishes on all the poles while juggling.   Being on multiple conference calls or in multiple places in multiple towns simultaneously has become the bane of my existence of late.  While none of it is actually any priority of mine. 

When my brother and I were kids, our Dad used to encourage us to play a word game.  The object of the game was to form the longest word possible, in order to earn the most money.  An average word was worth a nickel.  A good word was worth a dime.  An excellent word was worth a quarter. My father was the judge and jury.  He and he alone determined what constituted an average, good or excellent word.  There was no guidebook for the players to refer to.  We had to play at our own risk and hope that we would win the big prize by dumb luck or chance.

I had always excelled in English grammar classes and in spelling bees, so I liked playing this game. The challenge was to be able to come up with a word off the cuff, at any moment the game was initiated.  It wasn’t like I could go consult a dictionary first.  We had to have a word at the ready on a moment’s notice.  Luckily we didn’t have to be able to define the word or use it in a sentence.  We just had to knock the socks off my Dad.   Of course I always shot for the quarter words, and I usually succeeded.  Even as a child, I was a gambler and motivated by money (nothing has changed in the present day). 

Fast forward to the 2000’s.  Now the grandchildren play this game with my Dad.  Webster’s Dictionary has seen quite some change over the past 40 years since my brother and I were players, and I assume there is a significant generation gap between words the grandchildren come up with, versus words someone of my Dad’s generation (ie, non-digital age) would recognize.  It reminds me of a board game we used to play called Encore.  The object of that game was to be able to sing as many song lyrics as possible that contained the word of that round.  There was a total generation gap between the songs my generation came up with, versus the adults from the 1940s.  There were frequent arguments between young and old trying to defend songs as valid (we also challenged the elders), such as the time I had to defend a lyric I sang from Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”.   My Dad’s generation wasn’t familiar with alternative music and I can only imagine how this game would go today with the omnipresence of rap and hip-hop.  Which pretty much meant anything that we could say in a sing-songy way we could get away with.  There was no way they could actually dispute it or prove it wasn’t valid.   

While playing the word game with my Dad, my nephew (who was 11 at the time), came up with the word “anti-disestablishmentarianism”.  My jaw dropped to the floor.  I wasn’t familiar with the word myself, and the word was just so ridiculously impressive coming out of the mouth of an 11 year old, and he said it with all confidence and seriousness.  My sister-in-law confirmed that it was indeed a real word.  I think my Dad even gave him a dollar.  It definitely merited one in my book.

In writing this post three years later after this event, I finally actually looked the word up.  Its claim to fame happens to be that it is the longest word in the English language.  I always thought that distinction was reserved for ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’, which is longer.  But I guess that is a fictional word and doesn’t really count.  The origin of the word ‘Anti-Disestablishmentarianism’ goes back to 19^th century Britain when there was opposition to removal (disestablishment) of the Anglican church’s status as the state church of England.  In modern day, it refers to the opposition to anyone who opposes the establishment whether a government in whole or part.

I am grateful that my nephew is in a great school system, and more so that I am still capable of learning something from someone younger than me.  It was a necessary reminder that I am not omniscient and that we are all capable of learning from someone else, even an 11 year old.