These Times

I was 7 or 8 when I first heard a person use the word “decapitate.” I asked what it meant, and the person said it means to have one’s head cut off. I was disturbed, because I didn’t know that level of barbarity could exist in this world. Once I absorbed that news, I wondered why the word “cap” was in “decapitate.” Maybe it was a way to say you’d lose your ability to wear a cap? But why not “dehatitate?” It seemed that all caps were hats, but not all hats were caps ... At that moment, if someone had asked me what I was thinking, I likely would have said, “Uh, nothing.”

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Some people believe J...