Looking for meaning: a rant.

An English Autumn, and the leaflets are falling long before the leaves.

The trees here are still mostly green and lush, but the makers of puddings and perfumes, tool kits and tidies, stuffed squirrels and scarves, have begun their pre-Christmas frenzy.

Leaflets, leaflets, everywhere. They lurch through the letterbox, they swerve elegantly through the air from the pages of magazines. Newspapers are pregnant with them.

All selling a million things I really, really don't want.

(And, unfortunately, one or two things that I do.)

Most definitely in the former category comes the ALWAYS IN MY HEART crystal pendant. It features, according to the illustration, a decayed bench overlooking a beach.

On the back is a piece of verse.

The leaflet says this piece of verse is actually a 'meaningful poem.'

Ah, well, that's all right, then. I mean, those meaningless poems get everywhere, don't they, cluttering up the place.

You might feel curious about this poem, but I'd suggest you read it only if you're feeling strong (we take Health and Safety seriously here in TWD).

Braced? You're sure? Then here it is:

Those we love

don't go away, they walk

beside us every day.

Unseen, unheard,

but always near,

still loved,

still missed

and

very dear.

Walk beside us every day...

Hm.

Definitely the stuff of nightmares if you stop to think about it.

But then, even though the poem supposed to be so meaningful, we're really not supposed to do that, are we.

Word To Use Today: mean. This word comes from the Old English gemǣne, common, from the Latin communis, which means common, too (though not in a bad way).