Escapism...

By Vichara

Escapism is subjective. One man’s heaven can be another man’s hell. By various means we try to alleviate the turmoil that can sometimes spin out of control around us. For every person there is a means and a way. Drugs, booze, sex, spending, sports, gambling, etc. These are but a few means at our disposal. For every degree of turmoil there is perceived to be a degree of escapism that can soothe or temper what is invading our lives. There is no invasion, there is no personal attack, there is no vindictive cause, it is just “life” unfolding in all it’s colorful majesty. It is no escapism that will change things; it is equanimity in your acceptance of these events that will quell the storm clouds. Not a resigned acceptance, but one of pragmatism and resolve to see things as they are and accept the answers and solutions, no matter what they are.

pachydermatous • \pack-ih-DER-muh-tuss\ • adjective
1 : of or relating to the pachyderms
2 *a : thick, thickened b : callous, insensitive

Example Sentence:
With 18 eventful years in office behind him, the senator has developed a pachydermatous layer of self-protection that the latest media attacks cannot penetrate.

Did you know?
Elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses -- it was a French zoologist named Georges Cuvier who in the late 1700s first called these and other thick-skinned, hoofed mammals "Pachydermata." The word, from Greek roots, means "thick-skinned" in New Latin (the Latin used in scientific description and classification). In the 19th century, we began calling such animals "pachyderms," and we also began using the adjective "pachydermatous" to refer, both literally and figuratively, to the characteristics and qualities of pachyderms -- especially their thick skin. American poet James Russell Lowell first employed "pachydermatous" with the figurative "thick-skinned" sense in the mid-1800s: "A man cannot have a sensuous nature and be pachydermatous at the same time."