X is for Xerarch

“Now there were two catalysts…The second denied his need for satisfaction and excitement. His wife from Heaven bored him. He winced. The thought was repugnant yet true. Lilijana bored him often, and annoyed him even more. He could imagine life without her.”

-          Loathe Your Neighbor ch.2

Hopefully during the A-Z Challenge I have given you something to think about and some new words to play with. The letter X had me wracking my brains and running for my dictionary. Now I have learned a new word. Xerarch. I have a Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary which was a gift from my grandparents for achieving Dux (top student) of my primary school. It’s a bit old school, and I do often use online dictionaries, but my Websters is one of my favourite books: in my collection for over thirty years now. That’s enough padding…onto xerarch. It means originating in a dry habitat, like a cliff face or a desert. This clearly refers to plant species and ecological stages of development,  which takes me way outside my limited areas of expertise. However, if I may be permitted a little artistic license, I would like to suggest that certain human behaviours originate in dry emotional places. For example, loneliness might be described as withered emotional state in which a person is not watered by the richness of human company, and which therefore leads to eccentricity or anti socialism. Sexual promiscuity may derive from the inability, or unwillingness to be vulnerable and thus experience emotional intimacy. There may be a disconnect between the fertile fields of the spiritual aspect of sexuality and the physical actions. I’m thinking out loud here, so to speak. Would a person thus described be considered to be xerarch or would their behavior bear that label?