I was on what I considered to be a roll.  Based on my personal standards and my usual very routine and mostly calculated days, I was feeling pretty good about my writing.  I had found a rhythm, was doing some research, writing with authenticity and truth.  Then all of a sudden, with a single stroke, a complete stranger took a pin and popped my balloon.  Why?   Because I allegedly spelled the word ‘marinade’ incorrectly.  In case you don’t know, and to save you time and future humiliation, let me tell you the difference as it was so arrogantly explained to me by my unsolicited grammar watchdog, who we will just call ‘Lance’. Ok.  So if you want to use the word ‘marinade’, spelled with a ‘d’, it is apparently very important for us all to know that it is a noun.  You might not really care because I actually don’t either, but if, at any point, you decide to use that word, spelled that way, it might be better if you just replace it with the word ‘sauce’ instead.  It’s a flavor sauce that is added to some kind of meat and, you know, it’s a noun.  Now.  This is where it gets really uninteresting and tedious.  There is another spelling of the word that sounds uncannily similar, and that is ‘marinate’.   Marinate, with a ‘t’, is a verb.  Did you know that?  You might be ‘marinating’ right now on how I can continue to discuss something so boring.  In response to that, just trust that I would rather not discuss spelling or grammar at all.   However, when there is a watchdog, like Lance, who feels compelled to school you on semantics for the sole purpose of embarrassing you, you can either look the other way, or you can provide a passive/aggressive response.  I chose the latter which is by no means a win and definitely does not qualify as having taken the high road either. In any event, there are these crazy tools that are available called a ‘Thesaurus’ and a ‘Dictionary’.  I’m not sure if Lance has ever heard of them, but they are easily accessible with a simple web search.  I consider myself to be a student of life which gives me the freedom to learn something new every day without the heavy burden of already believing that I know everything.  With that said, I sought counsel from the Thesaurus, and it seems that Lance, along with his self-righteousness and extensive grammar knowledge, wasn’t exactly correct.  Upon looking up the word ‘marinate’, you’ll never guess in a million years what one of the synonyms was.   Marinade.  Wait, what?  Did I read that right?    In truth, I am now acutely aware of a word that I don’t use often enough to have warranted all of this scrutiny and attention, but the other truth is that Lance gave me a gift.  He generously provided me with the fuel that I needed to write about the arrogance that plagues our society. We are in an election year and that is really what I wanted to write about next, but thanks to Lance and all of the arrogance that he represents, I have made the difficult decision to temporarily shift gears and discuss that instead. Lance is just another symptom of what we all know to be true and that is that arrogance is no longer even attempting to hide in plain sight.  It is literally everywhere.  People, known and even unknown to you, will attack you over anything.  Even if your only crime is misspelling a word, apparently that is really egregious and requires immediate corrective measures to include humiliation as well as embarrassment. So who is Lance anyway?  Think of Lance as the male equivalent of Karen.  Social media has been buzzing in recent months as we lash out at Karen, blaming her for our misfortunes and angry at her obvious predictions.    We know that Karen is no one, and yet at the same time she is everyone.  Karen is everyone’s imaginary friend who spends an inordinate amount of time being a scapegoat, because even though she is right, she is still annoying.  Lance, on the other hand, is not made up at all.  We are all familiar with a very famous Lance, a cyclist actually, who experienced a very public fall from grace due to his propensity for substance abuse and cheating.  It was eventually revealed that much of his career was built on a blatant, and arrogant, lack of truth.  He lied and cheated almost his entire path to victory, was found out and subsequently, and permanently, fell off his bike.  That’s his story.  He was stripped of his achievements, awards and titles because he earned them by being dishonest.  Those are public facts about Lance Armstrong who is quoted as having said, “The riskiest thing you can do is get greedy.”  Which is fascinating coming from someone whose own greed is what ultimately had the last word and is what now defines him. Finding Lance Armstrong quotes that could be deemed relatable and inspirational by the majority of people proved to be challenging and ultimately a fruitless endeavor.  Even after having written a book, he was never really quoted as ever having said anything very interesting or unselfish.  Based on what we know, his dramatic fall was a direct result of his arrogance and greed.  One thing he is quoted as having said, “Two things scare me.  The first is getting hurt.  But that’s not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing.”  And there it is.  Because to Lance Armstrong and others like him, losing was, and is, not an option.  It doesn’t matter if you are talking about a bike race, a spelling contest or a difference of opinion on social media.  When we will accept winning as our only option, we inevitably set ourselves up to lose. But, like Karen, generally speaking, Lance has become more of a behavior, an attitude, …