Imponderabilia

Daffodils trusting in Punxsutawney Phil's early spring forecast.

I came across a fun new word: imponderabilia. It identifies those things we cannot evaluate exactly. My mind applies it to aspects of life I find confounding.

Thinking on imponderabilia doesn’t clear up confusion or provide profound insight. It stacks up, hanging around waiting for purpose, just as memorabilia does. Ticket stubs and old gift bags leaving glitter trails come to mind first. We remember the who, when and where but why on earth do we stuff them in drawers and cubbies to impede our search for stamps or thumbtacks?

Imponderabilia can be highly individualized. One of my imponderables is the secret to Mom’s gravy. It tasted the same every time, looked the same and felt the same to my tongue, always. She appeared to make it as both grandmas did, though each grandmother’s breakfast gravy was slightly different. None of them could produce a recipe with ingredients, amounts and procedures. Let’s just say the only way mine ever resembled any of theirs - it was concocted in an iron skillet.

Since gravy-making is no longer on any of my to-do lists (I certainly wouldn’t eat my gravy and gave up trying to reach a level of acceptability), I don’t have a need for flour in my kitchen. What on earth do folks do with all that flour, in this day of boxed and bagged mixes for everything? I used to keep a bag around, for propriety’s sake, only to periodically throw it out and replace it with the smallest one I could find on the next shopping trip.

Some imponderabilia is more universal - like Groundhog Day. Why do so many grownups get such a kick out of Punxsutawney Phil and the elaborate ceremony around ‘his’ fictional spring forecast? Well, we know why Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania likes it. What an economic boost!

But for the rest of us? Some might like saying Phil’s first name and typing it - a fun task when you don’t have to look it up every time. Punxsutawney looks and sounds mysteriously regal, don’t you think?

The rest of us will busy ourselves the next few days googling for charts on Punxsutawney Phil’s accuracy, look back at photos to see when our first daffodils bloomed and for evidence of late spring snows. We’ll give ol’ Punxsutawney Phil a lot of attention beyond his brief airtime on February 2. Imponderable.

(I subscribe to Dictionary.com's Word of the Day. I learn all sorts of things in addition to vocabulary. Imponderabilia was an entry.)