Magnanimous

Oxford’s Learner’s Dictionaries – /mæɡˈnænəməs/ (formal) kind, generous, and forgiving, especially toward an enemy or a rival

I hadn’t heard magnanimous in years, but then it popped up while I was reading (brag). It’s a tremendous word. If I ever do an “Adjectives That People Would Like to be Described As” bracket competition post (need to workshop the title), it’ll be one of the top seeds.

When I rolled magnanimous, and its definition, around my head, it got me to wondering if a word describes you based on your extrinsic actions, intrinsic thoughts, or both.

Examples

1. You and The Wendy Peffercorns lose the over 40 softball championship to your arch nemeses, High Camembert. During the post game interview (big stakes in this softball league), the reporter asks you about your opponents’ play. Even though you despise High Camembert, especially their cocky player-coach, you congratulate them on the win, commend their performance, and close with, “The better team won.” In your head, another story is playing out. You hate that they won. They caught a couple of lucky breaks during the 3rd inning. They weren’t the better team. It just happened that your best hitters were off in the championship game.
2. Sully (your rival has to have a name that ends in “y”) and you are vying for the lead sales position at Transistor Shed. You spend several weeks preparing for your upcoming interview with Hank, your boss. You look at historic market trends, formulate a 30-60-90 day plan, and develop a strategy to improve workplace culture in order to reduce turnover. Sully is not doing any of that. How do you know? Sully tells you, because Sully is that kind of guy. After your interview you are feeling extremely confident. Hank calls you in the next morning and shares that he is giving the position to Sully. You tell Hank that it must have been a hard decision, but you respect him for it, and will continue to support Transistor Shed in every way possible. That night when the staff goes out to celebrate the holiday weekend, you buy Sully a beer, and let him know that you’re happy for him. You are not happy for Sully. He’s lazy, selfish, reactionary, and ill-equipped to run the sales department.

Are You Magnanimous?

In both scenarios you said all the right things. Your actions aligned with magnanimous’ definition. But you didn’t believe it. In fact, your outward response was in direct contrast to what you were feeling. Would you consider yourself magnanimous?

I don’t have any answer. Most of my posts assert a particular position. Not this one. This is a journal entry. It’s a self-reflection.

Magnanimous could be interchanged with any number of words (courageous, patient, kind, giving, content, etc.). I worry that if the preceding adjectives are met with inner turmoil then they do not describe me. Maybe the more you outwardly display noble tenets, the more your inner thoughts start to align with those values.

However it works, being outwardly Magnanimous, and struggling internally, is way better than being Sully. That guy sucks.