That's a whole other can of worms...

There are words and phrases that appear to mean the same thing, but when you stop and think about it, they don't.  For example, you might say something like:

• It's not my problem.
• It's out of my hands.
• It's not my job.

But -- if you say, "Not my circus, not my monkeys..",  it's different - in serious ways.  For one thing it is funny -- at least to me it is. I would wear a T-shirt with that printed on the front  Think about it though. It goes beyond what the other, bulleted phrases above say.  It says that not only is the situation not your problem, but it also says that you are somehow above it and over it.  You are removed -- at least a species away. What, for example, does it imply about the people involved in the fray?  Does that make it even funnier?  Maybe, maybe not. I think it does.  

It's semantics, and semantics do count. Words can mean basically the same thing, but they bring forth different reactions, different emotions.  It's like the difference between the words "house" and "home" -- the first is without the attachment of feelings really and the second is warm --  a "home" is something you make, something that brings a good feeling -- hopefully. Remember Dionne Warwick's "A House Is Not a Home" from the early 60's?  (Is that song now running through your head?)

Words are tricky.  I know this.  I work with them all the time.  So do you. Whenever we attempt to put an idea into words, we are at least two steps away from what it really is.  How many times have you said or heard ..."there are no words to express..." or "words cannot express...".  The words you know are simply not good enough for every occasion. That can be a problem in several different ways, and that is why I spent a large portion of my life trying to get young people to read -- because that is the way that you find the words that will work best for you to get your ideas across.  A person doesn't deeply learn the right word from memorizing lists or from checking a thesaurus, it's more in seeing a word used and then in using it yourself -- making it your own, making the word work for you. It's a process, and to make matters even worse -- words qualify and limit as well.  If you don't know the word to describe exactly what you want to say and you use a less effective choice of words, you qualify and limit -- you are unable to convey exactly what you want to say. It's difficult.  No wonder people get tongue-tied in difficult situations.   It's frustrating. We simply don't have the words that we want or need. I know that I often find myself in that place.

I hesitate to mention this on top of everything else, but it sort of fits --- there is the whole punctuation issue to complicate the communication process even more -- that's a whole other can of worms. Think about what that expression is really saying about language. At least I didn't say that the punctuation issue was a nest of vipers.  Argh....  I guess we just do the best we can...  I am thinking that we all try.