Tweaking

Tweaking is a word that has come into vogue of late. I use it myself from time-to-time, and last Saturday while working in my yard it came to mind.

I mentioned that it has come into vogue of late. Actually, the word has been around a long time, but it has changed meaning somewhat. I have an old Random House Dictionary of the English Language in my office. It’s big and heavy too, so I only pull it down from the shelf when I really need it. The copyright date is 1967, so it doesn’t have the latest word usage. You know that the dictionary folks add new words and expressions every year. That was in the news just recently.

Well, I looked up the word tweak and found that in 1967 (the year I graduated from high school, by the way) it didn’t mean what it popularly means now. A verb, to tweak is “to seize and pull with a jerk and twist; to pull or pinch the nose of, especially gently.” Today, as I take it, tweak means to adjust or edit or improve, especially when it comes to ideas.

Tweaking an idea is generally a good thing. I say “generally” because I have found it useful – generally – to follow my first instinct. That is true when I am working and my work involves brainstorming, or when I am reading a putt. If I think the golf ball will break to the right and check it out from the other side of the hole and find that, no, it looks from this perspective like it will go to the left, I better read it again. It will inevitably break to the right, just as I read it the first time. In other words, my original ideas, when they have any merit at all, are not usually well-served if I tweak them too much. Still, tweaking an idea has its merit.

Tweaking a friendship is always good. It means you’re paying attention to the relationship, and any care you can give it only makes it better and stronger.

However, tweaking one’s knee is not a good thing, which is what I did Saturday while working in the yard, and started me thinking about all this. When the knee is involved, the 1967 definition is spot on. But, with my August 24 knee replacement coming up, I am fully confident that following extensive physical therapy, that form of tweaking will be a thing of the past.

And that’s a good thing.