Deifying Diet Dr. Pepper and other stuff?

Deifying, deifying, deifying….

Ok, yes, “Deifying” keeps ricocheting around my head.

Deifying?

You know: elevate, glorify, idealize, adore, consecrate.

Words of sanctity, or lifting something up beyond the ordinary?

Yes.

Oh, wow, is this a war of words? The word “ordinary” is not as elevated or as highfalutin as the “d” word - “deifying.” Right?

Yep. Culturally, that would appear to be the case.

But, wait, who makes the rules, identifying a word as merely “ordinary” rather than uplifting, or “deifying?”

Oh, my, tough question.

Case in point.

I’m not a religious institutionalist. However, if a Church of Diet Dr. Pepper existed, I’d be a periodic drop-in. I am a native Texan and was born with a Dr Pepper straw in my mouth! (Oh my, please don’t share this with my beloved North Carolina Quaker Meeting!)

So you’re saying Dr. Dr. Pepper (heretofore to be known as DDP) falls among ordinary words, but NOT among those words that are elevated or glorifying?

Yes, that would appear to, culturally, be the case.

And yet, and yet, you’d still be a willing drop-in visitor at the Church of DDP?

You bet!

OK, I am feeling totally confounded by this conversational push and pull between words that appear to be ordinary, rather than uplifting or deifying.

Aha! By George, I just got it! The apparently wide chasm between what I might consider ordinary, rather than elevated or idealized, is in the the eye of the beholder. This beholder, in fact! (AKA, moi.)

Returning to the, apparently ordinary and non-elevating words, Diet Dr. Pepper, as my prima facie evidence. Ho hum, aside from a native-born (just say it: Texan!) predilection for that drink, culturally it would certainly not fall among an identified pantheon of “deifying” words. Right?

WRONG! Wrong, wrong, wrong! (Do I make my point??)

Yes, hear you loud and clear! But help me out, I’m still confused.

Facing a sometimes obnoxious reality (is this the reason we have reality shows??) over the course of the last month. I’ve had a full knee replacement, Covid diagnosis three days later, physically sharing said diagnosis with the lovely people who helped care for me, a Covid rebound (look it up for yourself!) and due to blood loss - anemia!! I don’t know, does one say Bingo here or expletive deleted? You can take your pick.

HOWEVER, that ordinary term, Diet Dr. Pepper, has elevated my spirits, and my palette, to glorifying heights! Truly. To be truthful, the “elevators” are actually friends, in possession of my not-so-hidden DDP tendencies. Herewith, a catalogue of DDP heart-lifting interventions: 1) the socks emblazoned with “if you can read this, get me a Diet Dr. Pepper;” 2) DDP infused and bagged Cotton Candy; 3) DDP homemade saturated brownies with Maraschino cherries, totally consumed AND, 4) a 6-pack of the REAL stuff!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how comforting these DDP elevating ministrations have been. Of course, I have also been incredibly and continually elevated by those not-so-ordinary words such as “homemade food;” ordinary, but uplifting “how are you phone calls?”; ordinary cleaning up in my kitchen for that “poor” lil’ lady on the walker. Hey, I feel incredibly blessed by the love carried in these seemingly ordinary actions! So yes, I am deifying/lifting up all these mundane and ordinary contributions. In the eyes of this beholder.…no matter how ordinary something seems, if it comes from the heart, spirits are lifted! Here we go…my spirits, that is!