Admired

Admiration…
Say it with me again…

Ad – meh – ray – tion

Admiration.

Sounds weird doesn’t it? Probably even more odd to say. You know why?
Because no one freaking knows what it means anymore. What it truly means to admire someone or something. Yes, you can admire things like beautiful scenery, a grand arrangement of flowers, hard work into architectural details, the thought process it took someone to finish their work, etc.

God help us all if you just googled “Definition of Admiration.” Here, let me help you keep up…

ad·mi·ra·tion
ˌadməˈrāSH(ə)n/
noun

1.respect and warm approval.
“their admiration for each other was genuine”
synonyms:respect, appreciation, (high) regard, esteem, veneration; More

2. something regarded as impressive or worthy of respect.
“her house was the admiration of everyone”
synonyms:respect, appreciation, (high) regard, esteem, veneration; More

3. pleasurable contemplation.
“they were lost in admiration of the scenery”

So what is the point of my rant today? I’ll tell you.

When did we get so self-absorbed and proud that we don’t actually admire anyone anymore? Sure, we toss around the, “I respect him/her” verbal acknowledgements. But does anyone really respect anyone anymore? It just sounds nice. I am sick and tired of hearing things just because they sound nice. People use such strong, demanding and heavy words like “respect” and “admire” as a passing gesture and no more thought is put in to the words uttered from their mouths.
Maybe if we admired more people, more people would want to be admired. It would generate MORE GOOD PEOPLE. Huh, weird how that works right? If we took our faces out of our phones and laptops and social media, we would admire the world around us again. We would admire the good and realize how bad the bad has gotten.

It’s okay to admire someone. To want to learn from them, about them, to be like them in some aspect because of their skill or knowledge. As a society we have forced and drilled the “You must be unique” act for so long that no one is unique anymore.

Who do you admire?
Why do you admire them?
Are you admirable?