I learned a new word today. It is “contronym.” It is a word that has two meanings each the opposite of the other. The word “awful” used to mean something wonderful but now it means something terrible. When you dust your house you remove fine particles but when you dust a cookie you sprinkle something on it. I know some people who are contronyms. Sometimes they are the nicest people in the world and other times you better get out of the way. I’m sure you remember this by Longfellow. “There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good she was very good indeed but when she was bad she was horrid.”
This is a really good reason for not marrying someone until you have seen them angry at least once. Horrid can be horrid. We really need to know just how long the horrid stays around. Anger is okay as long as it is justified and well directed. Jesus got angry on more than one occasion. See Mark 3:1-6.
Literature is filled with contronyms. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is just one example. I think there is a bit of contronym in all of us. We have a social face and a private face for home. I do hope your home face is your nicer face. So often we are nice to strangers and horrid to the ones who love us. We must think we can get away with that. I would like to propose that we save our really nice face for the ones we love. If we have to be mean, be mean to a stranger who you will never see again.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 2, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574