This post is the second post in a two-part epic where I recount an absolute Kladderadatsch of a group project story. I try to avoid posting two words from the same language in a row, but as with Verschlimmbesserung before it, I simply couldn't resist this unfortunately perfect 2020 word. You can read the first …
Category: Conceptual Words
Verschlimmbesserung
2020 is a disaster. We entered into this new decade optimistic and excited, talking about the "Roaring Twenties" of yester-century — and now, after just eight months, we're only one horseman short of the Apocalypse. (For those keeping score at home, so far we have Pestilence, Death, and Famine; I don't even want to think …
Untitled
This is the first post I started to write without a word in mind. It had to be about the coronavirus and COVID-19, of course — the situation is so overwhelmingly pervasive that this post started writing itself in my mind without even waiting for a word to come along. So I went ahead and …
Romjul
The week between Christmas and New Year's often feels like a strange sort of limbo. Some people are still on vacation, while others are forced into a brief stint back at work sandwiched between two mini-vacations; you might be subsisting entirely on leftover food for days on end; the presents you received are still brand …
Besinnlich
It's so easy to get caught up in the rush of life. It's tempting to fret about the little things, particularly as the holiday season approaches at full pelt — down-to-the-minute travel plans, scrambling to wrap up business at work in preparation for the end of the year, trying desperately to find a way to …
Ikigai
At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose. —Unknown (Usually attributed to Aristotle) For some reason, society has made the idea of personal fulfillment out to be something quite stressful. We're often told, in very positive and inspiring words, that any moment not spent …
Mahlzeit
Lunch is my favorite part of the day. On weekdays, it's a break from work and a celebration of having made it halfway through the day; on weekends, when my day often starts much later, it's the first real step into the day ahead of me and a chance to soak up the anticipation of …
Zeg
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time… —Macbeth (5.5.19—21) The passage of time vexes us all. Macbeth had perhaps a more morbid, characteristically Shakespearean outlook than some, but he had a valid point to make: the nature of time is to …
Hygge
When I first learned about the fire at the Notre Dame cathedral on Monday, my word for the week had already been chosen and this post partially written. As the news updates about the incident began pouring in, I considered choosing different word, a French one that could somehow capture all the feelings surrounding the …
Wabi-sabi
Perfection is a siren's song. It calls to us across deep and treacherous waters, its mysteriously alluring melody tempting us to pursue it, promising us greatness when we reach it. But if we follow, allowing ourselves to become blinded by the music without knowing where it may lead us, it soon becomes dangerous. It becomes …
Verbomania 