Random Word Generator #2

I wrote yesterday about an assignment from Kate Messner’s book 59 Reasons to Write (Stenhouse, 2015). You can read it HERE about how I let the noun EDGE guide my writing.

Then I got this comment: Your question at the end (do you prefer edges or interiors) reminds me of people who prefer the crunchy edge pieces of a pan of brownies vs the chewy inside pieces. Personally, i prefer the inside!

This got me to wonder about places other than my park and a pan of brownies that have edges. Here’s my list:

• edge of a bed
• edge of a cliff
• edge of the mountain road
• edge of the paper
• feeling on edge
• Feeling edgy
• edging forward/backward
• edge of town
• edge of the water 
• edge of the field – in soccer, the side line; in football, the end zone
• edge of the pool – the lip
• having an edge over an opponent
• edge of the sky – sunrise/sunset at the horizon line
• Frosting is the edge of a cake
• tea sandwiches have their edge removed (I was always a sandwich eater w/o crust!)
• fishing off the edge of the pier
• looking over the edge of the balcony
• edging the lawn
• the garden’s edge
• sharp edges, smooth edges
• the sidewalk acts as an edge
• living on the edge
• cutting edge
• competitive edge

I googled Famous Quotes about Edge and after reading 2 pages of quotes (there were 23 page!), here are a few favorites:

• “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” – Kurt Vonnegut
• “Life is lived on the edge” – Will Smith
• “I grew up on the edge of a national park in Canada – timberwolves, creeks, snow drifts. I really did have to walk home six miles through the snow, like your grandparents used to complain.”  – Dan Aykroyd
• “Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.” – Jacob Bronowski
• “When one jumps over the edge, one is bound to land somewhere.” –  D. H. Lawrence

Then finally I looked EDGE up in the dictionary and enjoyed exploring all the definitions, synonyms and antonyms. I saw these lists:

Then finally, this website called Visuwords, produced this visual image:

Now it feels like I have brainstormed all the edges of EDGE!

I have never been the kind of person who is a big lover of words. Yet. This exercise was fun and I can see myself returning to do it again and again. I bet I even start using more descriptive words in my future writing and not just the word edge.

Do you have a favorite EDGE image,
like my commenter at the beginning did with a pan of brownies? 

Do you agree with Kurt Vonnegut we see more by looking out over the edge
that we can see from the center?

Which is your favorite synonym or antonym of edge?

What word might you explore?!!