365 Days- Book I

44. Insult

August 13, 2018

 "Write about being insulted. How do you feel? Why do you think the other person insulted you?"  

______________________________________________________

insult

Verb: ɪnˈsʌlt

Speak to or treat with disrespect or scornful abuse.

"You're insulting the woman I love"

Synonyms: offend, give/cause offence to, affront, abuse, be rude to, call someone names, slight, disparage, discredit, libel, slander, malign, defame, denigrate, cast aspersions on, impugn, slur, revile, calumniate;

Noun: ˈɪnsʌlt

1. a disrespectful or scornfully abusive remark or act.

"He hurled insults at us"

Synonyms: abusive remark, jibe, affront, slight, snub, barb, slur, backhanded compliment, injury, libel, slander, defamation, abuse, disparagement, depreciation, impugnment, revilement, humiliation, indignity, insolence, rudeness;

2. an event which causes damage to a tissue or organ.

"The movement of the bone causes a severe tissue insult"

Those are the dictionary definitions of the word 'insult' which though capture the meaning do not give a hint of the emotional upheaval the word causes. Insults are usually verbal and the scars they leave run deep; the emotional trauma caused takes a lot of effort and sympathetic understand to heal.

It is difficult to pin the one particular emotional reaction to an insult, it is an admixture of anger, hurt, embarrassment; one that leaves the recipient wondering what exactly they had done to be subjected to such humiliation. The magnitude of the insult is usually determined by the emotional situation of the person at the receiving end, the more insecure or unstable the person is, the harder the insult hits them.

This is not to justify the person insulting someone, it is just to state that the reaction of the person being insulted if far more greatly influenced by his mental and emotional strength. This explains why at times we are able to brush it off and blame the other person's weakness while at other times; we collapse in a heap of shame and hurt.

Maybe it is this belief that gave rise to the old English children's rhyme

'Sticks and stones

May break my bones

But words will never hurt me.'

Alas, life is not so simpleand we humans are complicated; what we perceive as an insult is met withintolerance or insecurity rather than the indifference it deserves.    

___________________________________________

Word count 340

A/N This is another instance of me taking a literary licence - I personally prefer not to talk about being insulted (real or perceived) for I remember what my mother says "Be careful when you talk about being insulted, empathy is rare, sympathy is possible though most of the times you would be met with silence and apathy. The more you discuss how you think you were insulted, the greater the chances that person hearing you out would start sympathising with the one who insulted you. Nobody likes a whiner."