Would you like to feel Whelmed?

The over/under of life's stress

Has anyone ever felt whelmed?

We can feel overwhelmed.

We can feel underwhelmed.

But like… just whelmed?

I’m sure this was a joke or line from a movie somewhere, and the internet will boomerang the citation back to me in an angry shout from the comment section. Regardless, I want to feel whelmed.

But… I don’t actually want to be whelmed because I looked it up the dictionary just now… and it kinda’ just seems like overwhelmed and whelmed are the same exact thing. 🤷‍♂️

ARCHAIC

verb

past tense: whelmed; past participle: whelmed

1. engulf, submerge, or bury.

   "a swimmer whelmed in a raging storm"

   • flow or heap up abundantly.

     "the brook whelmed up from its source"

Harrumph 🤬

Whether ‘over’ or just plain whelmed, I’m just tired of the pressure cooker of a million different conflicts, economic crisis, political machinations and the overall level of unprecedented-ness the last decade has been.

I’m tired, Gandalf. I feel thin. Sort of stretched like butter scraped over too much bread.¹

GAH!

I was thinking of 10 things I hate about you earlier (whelmed v under and over)!

I don’t think anyone really followed along with this. If you read this far, good on ya’. You are a true friend and confidant. Usually I try to think about ways to wrap up these sort of opening salvo posts (which I’m sure my brain will tie all nice and neat in a future post)², but I got nothing for you.

I think the best I have today is that, if you are feeling whelmed in the waters of uncertainty, go with the flow. You’re not a salmon. Don’t beat yourself against the surf to make sense of this chaotic world. Just flow.

1. Fellowship of the Ring FTW

2. Like “Ha! Remember when I wrote that weird thing. Here’s the hyper-fixated structure Rob built around that to keep the dinosaurs from escaping the park!”