Extricate

​Learned something today. It should be a red-letter day but the letter was black as per normal. I was looking up the word “extricate.” It basically means to untangle or to free up. The thing is it is from two Latin words “ex” meaning out of and “tricae” meaning perplexities. The thing I learned was the similarity of our word “trick” is no co-incidence. It comes from the same ancestor.
There are many similar words to extricate but it generally involves getting out of something with care and ingenuity.
Why was I looking up that word? Goodness knows. But I do find it interesting (it is sad that I do I know). There are similar words that mean similar things. “Untangle, free, liberate, release (as per the Merriam-Webster dictionary). Boy have I been in a few of those situations.
To me they are like driving down a one-way street and thinking “I don’t want to be here” and turning around. It can seem like wasted time but in life situations I do not know that anything is wasted (though driving down a one-way street and not meaning to be there probably is).
I should qualify that. Anything can be a waste of time if nothing is learned or gleaned from it. If like a fish with a three second memory I do the same wrong thing every time I learn nothing. The worst of it is, I am older after each one and as I have a limited number of seconds they are wasted. (fish get a bad rap. The three second memory is a myth. They can be trained. Dory in “Finding Nemo” sort of represents the three second memory thing and they make a great illustration.
The best way to extricate oneself is to not get into the mess in the first place. But that is wishful thinking. I have been places I know are not good for me and it seems most have. Most of the time the question is, what to do?
Some get into real dozies, while sometimes it is something as simple as stating something incorrect and being corrected. That is never pleasant. I have seen different reactions though. Some go into denial. They will do all they can to not appear wrong when they are wrong. Generally though that seems to make it worse. The denier is given up on at best, and at worst an argument ensures. I have witnessed an argument and we all went home not having done what we set out to do.
Sometimes it is just habit. No wonder they talk about sowing something continuously and reaping a destiny. There are many advantages to nipping something in the bud early. Bad habits are hard to break. Even worse when they are addictions. What was already hard becomes even harder.
Unpleasant circumstances are never lastingly satisfying, and I for one have never been disappointed to extricate myself from something that is bad for me.