#Carapace November 2

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Really excited on how many people yesterday decided to join the November Vocabulary Challenge. Thanks Dawn Whitley, Chris Taylor, Carolyn Watson, Karen Swiney, Rebecca Cummings, John Tanner, and Janna Osman for pushing our November challenge group close to 20.

There is still time for others to join. Just type “I In” in the comments. Info on the what and how can be found here 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge.

My first two words to learn yesterday were lexical and CARAPACE. I took some guesses on what CARAPACE might mean and all of them were wrong. I focused on definitions involving a rate of speed.

The correct definition of CARAPACE is “the hard upper shell of a turtle, crustacean, or arachnid”. I also had to look up what a arachnid was. It is spider or scorpion.

For a turtle that hard shell is a very good protective defense against some of its natural enemies. The list of predators of a box turtle would include raccoons, coyotes, and wild hogs.

As humans we sometimes protect ourselves with an emotional CARAPACE. We want to shield our emotions and character in fear of being hurt. The turtle realizes the CARAPACE is there in times of trouble only. It cannot survive choosing to live inside a shell its entire life. It has to stick its neck out to move forward.

Unfortunately too many of us decide to stay inside of our emotional CARAPACE way too long. Glad a new vocabulary word also offers up a life lesson.