In my last post I made a dumb joke about the word “vim”, which, obviously, is a pretty ridiculous word. I mean, people just don’t talk about having vim anymore, or getting more vim, or feeling vimish or being vimified. Easy target for a dumb funny. But I’m such a freaking nerd that once I admitted I didn’t know exactly what it even meant, it bugged the heck out of me, so of course I had to look it up in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Vim (noun): robust energy and enthusiasm
Shut the front door! Who cares if it sounds silly, that is the most amazing word I’ve ever heard, and I’m not one for hyperbole.* Robust energy and enthusiasm? That is exactly what I need! Its root comes from “strength”, which is also appropriate, and full of possibilities. And I love the example sentence. “Some food and a little rest should give me back some of my vim.” And by love I mean I’m terribly disappointed with it, because I want the example sentence to be “Some food and a little bloglove will give me so much vim that I won’t be able to stand still because I will be bursting with potential and optimism and robust energy and enthusiasm that I will end up king the world!” Much better. Apparently I missed my calling and should write the dictionary.
[* This is a lie. I quite prone to hyperbole. Also to lying. I’m not a very good liar, so 99% of the time you will know that I’m lying, and since I know I’m a bad liar I will know that you know that I’m lying, and will therefore lie for comedic effect. Or at least what I consider comedic. The other 1% where I accidentally lie better than I think I can and you believe me, well, hopefully it doesn’t hurt anything beyond you missing something I thought would be funny.]
I’ve definitely had vim at times in my life. Opening night of a play as an actor. The first month in a new city is always exciting. Planning for travel abroad gives me so much vim that it practically leaks out of my ears. But I suppose no one can keep that up indefinitely. Unless maybe you are on crack. I bet crack gives you quite a lot of vim, at least temporarily and before you crash and your teeth rot out and you get sent to jail. But I’d prefer to find my vim organically rather than chemically induced.**
[** Note to any Saturday Night Live writers reading this blog: please do a sketch about farming organic crack. Really, it writes itself.]
So how can I get more vim in my life? I guess I’m back to the direction I want to take this blog. Being Awesome. Finding my Vim. Because I know I have it, I’ve felt it and it is, indeed, awesome. I just need to cultivate it so I can feel the rush more often.
Full disclosure: I’m feeling vim right now. A lot of it. All this writing is fun. I just need to be able to keep it up. (Need, want, whatever.)
When is the last time you had vim?