Since we’re still rolling about in holiday mode on a Tuesday – and helping the economy by keeping consumption levels up – it may be worthwhile to consider the word ‘toxic’. The dictionary meaning, of course, means poisonous, something that can cause you physical harm. Here, toxic applies to poison, radiation, waste. But, over time, ‘toxic’ has spread its wings beyond physical objects to human behaviour. Thus, toxicity can be perceived in masculinity, in office environments, in relationships, etc. Basically anything one finds causing harm and damage to one’s sense of peace and happiness.
But we want to save the word ‘toxic’ from all-encompassing negativity and put it back into its rightful, specific phial. Because calling every damaging thing ‘toxic’ does little justice to the word and may run the risk of making both unpleasant behaviour and substances less serious. For starters, let’s recall Britney Spears‘ charming 2004 ditty, ‘Toxic’. With Lata Mangeshkar’s and S P Balasubrahmanyam’s 1981 ‘Tere Mere Beech Mein’ on a sample, Spears recontextualises toxicity, ‘With a taste of your lips, I’m on a ride/ You’re toxic, I’m slipping under/ With a taste of a poison paradise.’ This may well have been Rumi. So, the next time you offer someone a drink, don’t ask what her or his poison is. Just ask, ‘So, what’s your toxin?’
