I was pleasantly surprised yesterday by something that upset my sense of description. Usually the right word just bubbles up to the surface unbidden, like some sort of children's movie witch's cauldron—a cornucopia in a pot, a mélange on the make.
And yet, there was no word for what I was seeing. Could it be that the powers of diminution could have failed me? I was transfixed. The simple act of condensing my approximate state into a single utterance, a phrase or word, anything, was lost to me as surely as if it had grown legs and merrily skipped away.
First, of course, came the shock, but then I grew to be fond of the feeling as the sense of it grew in me. I was lost in uncharted waters, adrift in a sea of words the waves of which I had unheedingly trod for a lifetime. I suppose it is a feeling which will become more common with years and the slow, inexorable degradation of my neural capacities, but for now, the feeling is a pleasant stranger with whom I am just now getting acquainted.
Monday, November 11, 2013
11.11
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I resonate with this.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this is a bit of a non sequitur, but floating in waves is really nice, especially if you've got a scuba tank strapped to your back and you're floating otter-style. Pleasant, really.
ReplyDeleteUnless the waves are wind-whipped and your floatation jacket goes wacky. That's a whole other story.
Basically, I liked this.
Is it weird to say that, while i can't really say i've felt this feeling personally, i still understand this feeling? Like, it makes sense to me, even though i've never really thought about discriptive words as such. Perhaps because it can apply to multiple scenarios. In any case, it is a good read.
ReplyDeleteI personally like the idea that I'm somehow sinking beneath the surface of water which I've walked on, like some abnormal lizard or spider or something, light enough to repel the water before the surface breaks, and now I've gained enough weight that I break through and flounder, and that it's really my personal sense of gravitas that has led me to this current loss of verbal ability.
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