Initial Reactions

I do the Guardian cryptic crossword online everyday and people post their thoughts beneath the puzzle. One of the comments said "Almost a pangram" 

A word puzzle, or piece of text, which contains every letter of the alphabet is called a pangram. 

The most well-known is perhaps  the sentence about the quick brown fox. 

Change the initial letter of pangram and you get tangram which is a Chinese shapes puzzle.

I thought about other pairs of words where changing the initial seriously alters the meaning.

Is your yellow sauce sweet or spicy? custard/mustard

Is the animal swinging happily in the trees eating bananas, or miserably talking to Pooh Bear? monkey/donkey

That one letter change completely alters the meaning. Then instead of nouns I thought about verbs. By changing the initial, you can produce a very different reaction. Here are a few examples... 

Are you feeling utterly pessimistic or do you believe that things will work out eventually? moping/hoping

Are you focused simply on improving your own existence, or on helping others around you? living/giving

Are you depleting the planet's resources, or working towards sustainability? taking/making

Are you irritating people or nurturing them? bothering/mothering. 

We often need to choose how to respond to a situation - and that can make all the difference to how things work out. 

Not always easy. My Mum used to quote "Proverbs 3v5&6“ and Dad said “refer continually to James 1;5“ Wise words when making big decisions. 

Last week Rosie asked her Mum about a possible family activity, and was told that her parents had not made a decision yet. She put on her concerned face and said solemnly

"When I have to make a decision, I often find it helps to go eeny, meeny, miny, mo" 

This sage piece of advice will definitely be noted in the family annals!