Alan Bennett encapsulated it beautifully when he described his mother referring to the vista as "a big lot of about". The phrase has entered my life and gets used often. I think of myself as articulate but (and this is not something that has developed over the years - it has always been with me) frequently struggle to wrap my tongue around the word I want. Is this premature senility, a sign that I am headed for Alzheimer's, or do some brains just have odd synaptic arrangements? Flowerpot brought this tussling with words to mind, but it is a daily dance and probably as infuriating for others as it is for me. I don't even know if many people have noticed it, and if they have, I'm not at all sure I want verification.It has, as most things, a positive side. I conjure nicknames and phrases for people and things easily, many of them bordering on the absurd. The words sit fatly in the air for a few moments of enjoyment and then burst into temporary oblivion until the object or place or person comes back to mind complete with new tag. It's like having a compendium of word games inside my head; I never know which rules will apply at any given moment, but at least I'm the gamemaster.
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6 comments:
I have a degree in psychiatry and your symptoms tell me one thing - you are completely and utterly mad! But this can be solved with a daily dose of Ibuprofen... Actually, I bet that other people think of you as a lucid, articulate human being with a wide vocabulary and a mean ability to sometimes say things so clearly and sharply that they hit the nail full square upon the head.
(*By the way I was lying about the psychiatry degree!)
I would have said you have a real knack with words, Mopsa! but I know what you mean - I get that too. I'm sitting writing and suddenly I think - what was that word? Where's it gone? And I scratch around in the dust of my brain and sometimes it reappears. Others it doesn't.
If I can't think of a word I leave it, and it arrives of its own violition.
I find this also works when I'm trying to think of someone's name ..
Hello from Sunny California
Saw your BERNER photo on the comment page of Caroline Smails.
I have a 9 year old Berner named Sam. How old is yours? where in he UK are you?
I have a picture of my Sam on my blog, under July 4th where I talk about a book....
CHEERS
You are all so kind - I must keep using words or there is a chance that one day, they will all fall into a damn great hole in that big lot of about.
SabineM - as it says in the title, I'm in Devon. Mopsa is 7 and Fenn is 2. Bernese rule (at least they do in my house).
I don't think you're mad, it's just getting a real mature adult. You know it always looks like that - deep in thought, long reflections and so on. Don't worry!
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