Just

What’s a word or phrase that annoys you?

There are quite a few words that irk me. I’m something of an expert on getting annoyed. But to keep things mercifully short and brief, I’ll focus on just one today.

And that’s the word. “Just.”

It has been reduced to such a dismissive word. With it, a statement turns from fact to degradation. A teacher. “Just” a teacher. A child. “Just” a child. A janitor. “Just” a janitor. It so effectively demeans and devalues.

Or it downplays the importance of actions and words. “I was just kidding!” you claim, after angering someone with a thoughtless turn of phrase. “It was just a little bump,” you say, after rear-ending someone at a stoplight. “It was just twenty bucks,” you say to your friend who loaned you money you never paid back.

Oh, how powerful words are, that a single one can communicate so much meaning and judgment. Carefully inserted, it changes the entire implication of what you say. And how casually we use “just” to wave away things that should be taken more seriously or to put down people who matter more than we think.

So, yes. It annoys me.

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Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.

“Hermes is not having the best time. He walks a fine line, and his duty as messenger of Olympus weighs heavily on him. Being a god in the modern age means living in a world that no longer believes in gods. How much can one deity accomplish when no one respects him anymore? And why do his instincts tell him that he, the son of Zeus, is losing favor with his own family?

Tensions abound. The upstart Young Gods play dangerous games using entire cities as their boards. Formless monsters strike from the nighttime shadows, terrorizing hapless mortals. Agents of rival pantheons scheme to thwart Olympus’ designs. In the thick of it all, Hermes does what he does best: trick, lie, and cheat his way to victory.“