An exemplum

The next word up on our journey through A Confederacy of Dunces is EXEMPLUM. On page 42 of "Dunces," Ignatious talks about an exemplum for the youth of America, furthering the cause of Clearasil.

From www.thefreedictionary.com

ex·em·plum
1. An example.
2. A brief story used to make a point in an argument or to illustrate a moral truth.

I didn't even know they had Clearasil back then, but it had been created in 1950. My acne was so bad in the early 80's, I wish I would have known about it. There was one girl in high school that was my ultimate crush. Of course, I had no chance. My senior year, my dermatologist cured my pizza face with a prescribed cream, pills and sun lamp treatments over the course of a year. Yeah, it was bad, but it got cleared up.

I ran into this girl years later and miracle of miracles, she was interested in me and my smooth tan skin from Spring Break. Too bad. Let that be an exemplum to her. Ha ha. That word just doesn't sound right.

So, exemplum. Yes, sounds close to example so maybe I didn't need to add it to the blog, but I did not know about the moral truth part. So, it's an anecdote with a message. And how often have you used this word or seen it in a written passage?

Unless you're Latin.