Friday, January 20, 2012

Musing......A new word needed

Just musing (and new category for my blog)............

I have two friends who each have had a very recent death in their family, one's husband and the other's mother. Words in our language are so inadequate in these deeply sad and personal situations.

I had already been thinking a lot lately about the inadequacy of our English language and for some reason suddenly remembered that the Inuit have multiple words for snow to convey a combination of unique characteristics to facilitate understanding and communication. That led me to wonder why there isn't a word in our language that combines a person's feeling of sadness and/or a need to apologize (I'm sorry that..........) with thankfulness (Thank you for ...............) without having to choose which to say first, in effect ranking one over the other as a priority.

I can think of several times I could have used this non-existing word when I did not want to have to choose how to start a sentence, in essence starting the conversation and brain down one track versus the other when I really wished for a track in the middle that we could travel together with a common and easier beginning, a meeting of the heart from the first word.

Going from one language to another is never easy either. I am currently reading my two copies of the Tao Teh Ching side by side, each translated by a different person. They are so different, one is soft, one feels harsh. I suppose each will appeal to a different person, depending on their nature, their lens, where they are on a quest.

Thus I will keep contemplating my desire, my quest for a new word that suits my nature and my lens or framework to combine those two deep and essential feelings when communicating.

In the meantime, I send my heart-felt sympathy and empathy to my friends. I have also felt this deep pain from loss and found that knowing death will be a part of my life at some unknown point in the future (from cancer or so many other possible causes) brings the beauty within my life into clearer focus right now.

Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

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