Master Your Velleity

​I'd like to share one of my favorite words.

I have 65,000 thoughts banging round at any one time and now I know why a most of them don't get done.

Like, sometimes I think it would be nice to win the lottery.  No, I'd love to win the lottery, but I seldom, if ever, buy a ticket. 

I'm pretty sure you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket. I've never heard of that happening. Have you?

I'd love to write a symphony, but alas, I can't be bothered to learn the music or practice.

It's velleity pure and simple. 

Velleity is a wish or an inclination that's not quite strong enough to lead to action.

There go my lottery winnings. 

Put another way, velleity is the lowest degree of volition, a slight wish or tendency.
Merriam-Webster 

I like my mother's definition best though. My mother loved words. She loved colorful words. Colorful words for a colorful lady.  She would say:

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Velleity is wanting something so much you're not willing to get off your a$$ to get it.

I think the Romans may have made it up first. It's a Latin thing. 

As for me, I first heard the word velleity in an Ogden Nash poem. 

Let's hear what Ogden Nash has to say about the topic! Oh, glorious velleity!

Like Mr. Nash, the word gives me great satisfaction. 

WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S VELLEITY
By Ogden Nash

Seated one day at the dictionary
I was pretty weary and also pretty ill at ease;
Because a word I had always liked
turned out not to be a word at all,
and suddenly I found myself among the V's,
And suddenly among the v’s
I came across a new word which was a word called velleity,
So the new word I found was better than the old word I lost,
for which I think my tutelary deity,
Because velleity is a word which gives me great satisfaction,
Because do you know what it means,
it means low degree of volition not prompting to action,
And I always knew I had something holding me back
but I didn’t know what,
And it’s quite a relief to know it isn’t a conspiracy,
it’s only velleity that I’ve got.
Because to be wonderful at everything
has always been my ambition,
Yes indeed,
I am simply teeming with volition,
So why I never was wonderful at anything
was something I couldn’t see
While all the time, of course,
my volition was merely volition of a low degree,
Which is the kind of volition that
you are better off without it,
Because it puts an idea in your head
but doesn’t prompt you to do anything about it.
So you think it would be nice to be a great pianist
but why bother with practicing for hours at the keyboard,
Or you would like to be the romantic captain of a romantic ship
but can’t find time to study navigation
​or charts of the ocean or the seaboard;
You want a lot of money
but you are not prepared to work for it,
Or a book to read in bed
but you do not care to go
into the nocturnal cold and murk for it;
And now if you have any such symptoms
you can identify your malady with accurate spontaneity:
It’s velleity,
So don’t forget to remember that you’re velleitous,
and if anybody says you’re just lazy,
Why, they’re crazy.

This week, I conquered my battle with velleity. I got out the pens, then the paper, and I drew this little drawing of my brother's family dog.  Her name is Tally.  She's a wonderful pup. The kind you could spend a lot of time around. 

One must master their own velleity. 

Until next week, I wish you peace.