Using ‘rationate’ in a sentence

I love words. I guess it’s kind of a prerequisite for the job. I especially love old words, ones people don’t use a lot anymore, so I was immediately intrigued by the recent challenge on the Writers Circle Facebook page to use the word “rationate” in a sentence. I had never heard the word before, and other definitions I looked up indicated it was a very old, scarcely used verb of Latin origins that basically means to be cool and think things through using a rational process. As in, “It’s better to rationate before you masticate on the hind quarters of someone who pontificates.”

Nailed it. And so did Maddog Trucker this week in his weekly Facebook post.

Last week, Anne Balay and Mona Shattell published a fairly compelling piece in The Atlantic about PTSD in the driver’s seat. It brought up a lot of good points about mental health in general, but kind of lacked suggestions for improvement or resolution. While I believe it was written in hopes of advocacy for the industry, it seemed to leave the unaffiliated reader just one more reason to be afraid of big trucks and truckers in general.

A quote from a previous Maddog post was used as the lead in for the article, and initially, he wasn’t really thrilled about the context in which it was used, but instead of biting back, like a Maddog might do, he methodically took the article apart and examined what he thought it was lacking and wrote a very informative, extremely thoughtful piece about the other side of the pancake.

I’d like very much to see The Atlantic run a second part to the Balay/Shattell article, including the information Maddog took the time to collect, because it offers solution and hope, instead of another reason to mandate and regulate people into submission because the general public is scared of them. The nurse in me appreciates both pieces – mental healthcare is kind of a joke in this country and any light that can be shed for someone in need of help and afraid to seek it is a good thing.