Healthy, Wealthy & Wow!

As I walked along the East River late this afternoon, I found myself singing, “When the sky is a bright canary yellow…” I was in a very optimistic mood. My son had just helped me fix my computer and I knew I was a blessed woman. Then I caught my mind delving back to the concept of word usage. In my senior years I can’t seem to get away from thinking about words and how we came to use them as we do.  I’ve spent so much of my life speaking and thinking in English that I often took certain words for granted – and I’m a lyricist. I’m always thinking about words, yet I wonder how many people never analyze why certain words were chosen to mean what they do. Each language has it’s own groups of words that work together like relatives even though the people using the words don’t really think about how those words are related.

I love words and I love optimism. I’m surprised I hadn’t really delved into the word “optimist” in the way I did today.   Today I realized that the word “optimist” must be related to optimum.

In my book, “Find Your mini-Qs(?): Reveal the Slim, Strong, Sexy Star You Truly Are! at Age 50, 60, 70, and Beyond.” I often talk about finding the foods, movements, etc that are “optimum” for you. I looked the word up on the Free Online Dictionary and the definitions that came up were:

1. The point at which the condition, degree, or amount of something is the   most favorable.
2. Biology: The most favorable condition for growth and reproduction

Both of the above certainly fit what I speak about in my book. In fact I mentioned it in the Blog post before the last one. I also speak of it in other posts.

Optimism is a view of life that sees things as working out well. Hmmm…”sees. Then, I thought of the word “optical”. We don’t refer to things pertaining to the eye and to vision as “pessical!” I just made that word up. But –if optimism relates to optical – i.e., seeing things as working out for the best, why don’t we give pessimists equal play?

Optimum and optical seem related to me.  Our language doesn’t give pessimism equal play. I’m very glad of that. Pessimism is the antonym of optimist.  The word “optimism” originated in France in the 1730s

As I was humming the song from South Pacific I was thinking of the connection between optics and optical. But – then I thought – the song I was humming was “Cockeyed Optimist”.  That kind of reverses the definition. It’s almost saying that if you see things optimistically you have distorted vision and people will think of you as a bit “nutsy!” I had an AHA when I remembered that Oscar Hammerstein, whose lyrics I adore, wrote this for Nellie Forbush to sing as an Ensign in the US Navy, stationed in the South Pacific during WWII.  I have a feeling – more than a feeling  – there was a lot of fear thrown into people’s minds then and people would feel that Nellie was a bit out of her mind to take a positive view of the world. Yet, even in those circumstances, the character of Nellie chose to see the world through positive eyes. We all can and it makes sense for us to choose to see the world that way. After all – optical, optimum and optimist are all from the same word group.

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I can hardly believe that I’m hearing about events for Memorial Day. It seems to me that it was just Christmas! Christmas of 2010! I just saw my son’s theatre troupe performing Nutcracker Rated R at The American Theater of Actors.  That was a whole year before this year’s incredible performance at Poisson Rouge! I’m talkin’ a year and a half ago!

I’m going to be 72 in a week and I understand that as we live longer and longer we perceive time to move faster and faster. For some reason I feel that although my grandmother felt time move more quickly in her later years, I don’t get that she expressed her feeling about the passage of time in a way that made it sound quite as fast as I’m experiencing it.

I also hear more and more young men and women who are in their 20s and 30s, expressing amazement at the quick passage of time.  At 72, I perceive time to move much more quickly than they do, but they perceive it to move much more quickly than I did when I was their age. When I was in my twenties and thirties there were TGIF parties every Friday. TGIF, if you weren’t around then, stands for “Thank God It’s Friday!”  A decade later, Wednesday was considered the “hump” of the workweek. It was a thrill to have gotten over the hump!  I’m now writing this blog post and it’s Sunday evening. It will be Wednesday evening in what will seem to me like fifteen minutes. A person in their early 30s told me the same period of time seems to her like about 40 minutes. That’s still longer than three days!

Young workers today are rarely free from answering people’s needs. They’re on their computers or Smart Phones all day long answering this email or entering their opinion on this or that Linked in Group and networking for hours to make sure they have the knowledge and craft to keep the job they have and, if that job doesn’t pay as well as they need it to, climb the ladder to success.  We’re living longer and longer and I wonder if most of us who are living longer are feeling as though we’re getting all those years our grandparents, for the most part, didn’t get. Even when the contacts are semi-personal, it can feel as though the workday never ends.

On July 11, 2011 I wrote a Blog Post about the day people won’t have to work and the machines will be set up to do the work for us. This will be hundreds of years on the future; but it captures my imagination.  Do you think people who are alive in that era will feel time is passing as quickly? When the routine of work is no longer part of the day, will the day still seem to fly by? Is it the daily need to use technology and engage in Social Networking causing time to seem to fly by at a quicker pace?  I’m speaking from my own observation. I’ve found many articles on this topic; but I don’t know which have the most validity.

Might any of my readers know of valid scientific studies that have come up with a way to measure the effect that the daily sending and reading of email, participating in social media, etc. has on our perception of time? I’d very much appreciate hearing from you. Thank you, in advance, for your help.

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The more I think about it, the more I get to see that words and how we verbally refer to things affects our behavior.  For example, we get excited talking about different designers. A person may say he’s carrying a Louis Vuitton brief case. While we know that’s considered a fine and expensive brief case, the reality is that’s it’s a brief case.  If briefcases had brains, while they might look up to the durability of the leather chosen to make the Louis Vuitton product.  However, I doubt that they’d think of them as anything other than a brief case – until they were taught to think otherwise.  Some knives are stronger than others. There are various types of knives; but we still call them all knives.

As I get older, I think of people less and less as different races or sexes or nationalities, etc. I’ll notice a difference in the tone of skin or shape of eye, etc. But it would be the same as my looking at the differences between a silk scarf or a wool scarf. The purpose of each would be to decorate my neck and one would be cooler to wear than the other. The wool scarf, might keep me warmer.  So I’d choose the wool scarf on colder days.  That wouldn’t make me value the silk scarf less. It’s the same for people. To me all people are potential friends or work associates.  One may be good to her sing another great to get medical treatment from, etc.  That said, they’re all people.

When I was little I’d often hear races referred to as though they were different species.  Thankfully, my parents didn’t look down on other races to the extent most of Americans seemed to.  Still, I never felt that I was supposed to think of other races in terms of possible spouses.  I felt that it was okay to mate a Silky Terrier with a Spaniel.  However, one would not expect to see a Caucasian man or woman with a mate that had dark brown skin.

I realize how fortunate I am to have been living very close to the United Nations for the last eleven years.  I’ve mentioned this before.  There are families who have come to New York City from all over the planet, who live in my building.  All the young children play together and we all get along. It’s evident to me that we’re all, basically, the same. I used the term “planet” and not “world” on purpose. I have no idea whether the living creatures in other galaxies are the same species that we are.

When I think of human races I think of them as different designs of the same product.  I now don’t even think of  “races”. We’re really all shades varying between warm or cool light beige – to warm or cool dark brown.  It all depended how strong the rays of the sun were where the earlier members of the family were living. The different accents and even different languages etc. came about because we had no way of communicating with each other.  If cell phones existed when “man/woman” began being born on Earth, we’d probably all be speaking the same language.

What’s exiting to me is that we’re each unique. We’re each a cell that’s part of one living thing.  I may have said this before. At the risk of sounding crazy, I see the Universe as a being. The galaxies are the organs in the being and the solar systems are the cells.  That leaves the planets as the equivalents of protons or neutrons. The creatures on each planet comprise the food for the protons and neurons. We help the planet grow and, therefore help our solar system grow, etc. etc. We’re tiny, but VERY important.  This may be a scientifically simplistic view. I wasn’t a science major so if may even be a bit off, factually. However, as I see it, when groups of us fight each other – it’s like eating a food that changes or obliterates the value of another food. We’re trying to insure that the other group doesn’t hold the major position. Each cell is unique; but together all the cells in us comprise our single body. So humans are one species. We seem to have brains that are large enough to keep our planet doing its job as part of our solar system as part of our galaxy as part of our universe as part of the world.

I now get that we needed countries (governments) to see to it that crops got planted and people had food and places to sleep. I’m sure they didn’t start out because one of them was supposed to have supremacy over the others.

I wonder if there’s a way of phrasing the way we speak and of choosing words that can make “black skinned person” come off the same way to us as saying “black haired person”.  Brunette or blond hair amounts to the same difference as black or pale skin, no?  It’s merely an attribute of a hue. It doesn’t define character. The same would be good for different countries and governments.  I think words and phrases set us up to think about things in a certain way.  If you can think of a system of using different phrases to describe the differences we see between people in our species I’d love to hear from you. We were merely taught that we weren’t all equally valuable. Perhaps you can come up with something that leads people to see the truth that we’re one.

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This is another “Who wouldda thunk it!” happening.   A week or so ago I took the M Train to a street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I don’t think I’d ever been on that street before. It was in the north end of South Williamsburg.  I was going to rehearse with an accordionist for my son’s birthday show of “Le Squeezebox Cabaret”.  While on the train, crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, I called a friend, who lives not far from the 59^th St. Bridge in Queens.  For some reason, while I was speaking with her, my brain turned the Williamsburg Bridge into the 59^th St. Bridge.  When I got off the train my mind was still in Queens.

As I walked toward Hewes Street, the street on which the musician told me he lived, I kept thinking about my childhood and how we never really went to Queens. It was walking on a work street and, for some reason, I didn’t think of the fact that there were many Chasidic men clearing packages from stores and putting them into a truck. It was only two days before Passover and, I’m sure there was lots of work to be done by the Kosher food storeowners. I think I, also, passed by a temple. Many Chassidic Jews live in Williamsburg. I kept walking and continued thinking about how interesting it was that I’d never spent much time in Queens when I was a kid and that I was so lucky to have grown up in Brooklyn.  (My family didn’t think too much of Queens.) You had to go there to get to the airport and it was the way to Jones Beach, which, while beautiful, wasn’t like Coney Island that had the Cyclone!  I could feel my body tense and feel like it didn’t belong in this less than lovely place. For the first time in years I felt there might be danger on the street – and it was daylight! Then my mind went to my son’s North Williamsburg neighborhood and how fabulous that had become with its gorgeous waterfront promenade and the great restaurants and clubs that had opened there in recent years, etc.

As I walked a bit further, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Hello! I was in Brooklyn!  I’d gone to Williamsburg – not to Long Island City.  My body suddenly felt warm and caressed and the architecture of the old buildings looked interesting and I felt them lovingly surrounding me.  I turned the corner and easily figured out where the building I’d be rehearsing in had to be. The street looked tree-lined and lovely. I got a kick out of seeing school busses with Hebrew writing on them.  My eyes were opened and felt the joy I get from walking through fabulous places – or what I deem to be fabulous.

I then realized that when I was thinking “Brooklyn” I felt love, warmth, history, excitement and ownership!  I feel that in London, Firenze, Sorrento, Napoli, San Diego, Tucson and Nashville – i.e. places in which I had great experiences in the past.  Manhattan and Brooklyn top any ioplace in terms of the joyful feelings I experience!  But, when I thought “Queens”, it was my dad’s thoughts about Queens that affected the very way my skin felt.

Once again, I realized there’s so much joy to be gotten from unlearning the judgments we were taught to make before we even realized we were choosing to make judgments.

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First, I have to tell you that I will no longer be writing this blog or anything else. I’ve been told that many of the songs I write are funny and that my blog was beginning to show tendencies toward irony and, even humor. I apologize to all for this.

“April Fool!!!!!!!!!”

I can’t think of anything that’s more of a contribution to the world than humor. Great music’s contribution may be on a par with good humor.

I had a great time “googling’ the origins of “April Fools Day”. I was fascinated to find out that almost every country has had a Fools Day of some kind. They may have fallen on different dates because our calendars weren’t aligned.  To me, the importance isn’t so much the date as that a Fools Day or Prank Day, as it’s been referred to in some countries, exists at all!

The fact that almost every civilization and country, at least in the past 2,000 years has honored a silly day of pranks gives me hope for further development of our species – AND – for people to be able to stay youthful longer!  Do you see how people often look younger when they’re telling a joke or a funny story? They also look more at peace with themselves.  I truly believe that seniors should attend (good) comedy shows as often as possible. In my opinion (I may be wrong) there have been a slew of poorly trained comics in the past twenty years. Risqué words alone do not “funny” make and everyone starting with “How y’all doing’ tonight?” can get tedious. But, of late, I’ve seen some super comics. This is a change for the better!  Most of these have been over 50 years of age – but – some of the 30, and even, 20 “somethings” are really cookin’!

I feel blessed to have known Jackie Mason who can lighten the heart of almost anyone who attends one of his shows. I also have to say that the audience I saw at Dame Edna’s show became too young to be in a theater without parents – right before my eyes!

Laughter builds the spirit and seems to dissipate rivalries.  Certainly there’s that underhanded humor often used by late night talk show hosts when they’re speaking of political issues.  However, straight out humor and prankishness seems to keep even the oldest participants giggling.

I have to give my family credit for turning April Fools’ Day into a spontaneously happy eventful day!  My Dad who was always conducting tongue in cheek pranks (I wish I knew some of them were pranks when I was young – hmph hhmmph!) did get us to see the humorous side of things and we rarely had fights in our household. I bet that’s why he was such a good Labor Relations Attorney. He could get the different sides laughing and then they could see that they were truly agreeing more than they were disagreeing.  I just this moment realized that his birthday would
have been yesterday – March 31^st. I bet he felt he had to get out of my Grandma Becky in time for April Fool’s Day!!

I’m going to do my best to get April Fools Day a higher place in our national holiday focus!  We should encourage humor in our country. UN Missions could have Comedy Evenings, which would, of course, contain comedy songs! Wouldn’t it be great if two missions from countries that are “enemies” produced an evening of comedy with a party following?  I can hear the fear and uh oh’s. You know what? I betcha – if they could start laughing together – the people of each of the countries could find a way to unlearn the silly things they’ve been taught about the people from the other country.  Remember- “You’ve got to be carefully taught!”

Sound too simple? I have a feeling it is simple and we’ve been making it complex and hard.  I’m not saying this as an April Fools joke.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY TO ALL!

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I’ll bet you have places that feature comics in your area. There are several comedy clubs in NYC.  Lately, fabulous comics like Nancy Redman and Warren Schein have been appearing in the variety shows I mentioned in my last post.  The Love Show and Le Squeezebox Cabaret feature comics, among them, The Great Dubini, who is a wonderful magician – who happens to be very funny. Keep your eye out for humor. It’s always good to laugh.

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I’m back to the craziness of how we use words in our language. I bet other languages experience this too if the creatures speaking them are Homo sapiens!  It took me living a long while to see how some words can make out thoughts work in ways that don’t help us.

FIGHT AGAINST DISEASE? Why do we turn handling things into “fights”. Is a fight the only thing that spurs Homo sapiens on to get things done?  Saying I have to fight overeating puts me in a position where there is a possibility of losing.  If there are cancer cells in a person’s body isn’t it healthier and don’t you have a better chance of being well again and staying free of cancer if you say something like: ”Let’s research techniques to keep the body in balance so that it doesn’t create new cancer cells and also methods of removing any cancer cells that may remain. I tend to breathe easier and get more accomplished when I don’t feel like I’m battling.

I may be the only one that feels this way because I hear Fight This or Fight That all the time.

Instead of “fighting” racism I find I get better response when I educate people and talk matter of factly to people.  As a Certified Image Consultant, when I give color/style workshops I’ll always throw in the there aren’t really any such things as races. We’re all shades on the light off-white and beige to darker brown scale and how bright and pervasive the sunshine was where our original ancestors were living when the family started out would determine where we were on the scale of off-white to brown. If cell phones had existed when mankind started we’d probably all speak the same language and have similar views.

Fighting against depression would get me more depressed. I’d much rather hear “allow happy thoughts to take hold” than “fight depression”. I think my brain would move much more quickly become less depression ridden if I said to it, “Brain – allow joy to flow into you today.” – than it would if I told it to “fight depression!”

Another thing we often tell people is to “fight for your rights” How about telling them to ask for their rights and giving a good reason as to why they should have those particular rights. Find the right people to contact about them and keep contacting them. If they don’t listen, get signatures from as many people, who agree the “whatever” is needed, as possible and get the signatures to the person in charge.  When I mentioned this to someone a while ago he said, “But that is fighting!”  It doesn’t fit my definition of fighting! The minute someone says, “No” and we ask again, we’re said to be fighting. I’m not fighting when I do that. I’m asking and educating.

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If you’re in NYC this week and next are great times to visit one of the weekly variety shows in town. Wednesday Night at the Iguana (8-10:30PM) is a booked show that books top entertainers for a couple of songs each. The shows have been terrific in the past couple of months. I know I’m promoting myself promoting my son since we’ve each been booked there recently!  Hostess Dana Lorge is up for 3 MAC Awards, one of them being for hostess and another for producing the weekly show. The Iguana is located at 240 West 54^th Street and reservations are a must. Call (212) 765-5454

On Sunday nights the Salon, which is an open mic – featuring top entertainers. It’s at Etcetera, Etcetera on 44^th between 8^th and 9^th Avenues. It runs from 7-10:30PM. Sign in to sing is at 6:15. The Salon is up for a MAC Award for Open Mic.

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I coach people, including older people. I coach  presentation skills and I help them design their own path to fitness and rejuvenation.  In short, I find techniques to help them love themselves. I’ve said it many times in this blog and elsewhere that in my late 60s I realized my mission was to see to it that people love themselves.  I’m certain that self-love is the basis of being able to love and contribute to other people and to the world.

Some of my older clients have revealed that they were beginning to feel unnecessary in the world. I spend time helping people “unlearn” the ideas they’ve taken in from the information that’s thrown at them; the silly birthday cards and the jokes and the descriptions of older people.

Okay! I want to let you know that I’m not 100% exempt from having these thoughts enter my head either.  Here I was with projects looking like they might take off and – at the same time  – feeling like I wasn’t really needed around anymore!  I knew that these thoughts were goofy and based on nothing real; but that’s the way I was feeling. I knew that I’m healthy and in shape and learning new things and that’s all nice – but who was I really helping?  The first two months of “Leap Year” 2012 were leaping by and I was beginning to feel like I no longer belonged on this lovely planet. I was questioning my own value. See – even though people all think I’m “the happy one”, these feelings can hit even me. I knew that people were going “Yay!!” about the video idea that I’ve been putting together (you’ll hear more about this in about a week or so when the papers are ready) and about other projects I’m working on -  but I’ve discovered that there are times when these negative thoughts can come into almost anyone’s mind.

THEN BOOM! I get an email from a performer, David Pressler, who took a Color/Style workshop I gave in New York. David is now living in Florida with his wife. He sent me You Tube videos of them singing. This guy is fabulous! As I watched and listened to him perform I wished I was an agent. I actually did find someone to introduce him to in Florida. He kept thanking me for the class and for being there and rooting for him.  I thought to myself, “Maybe I have made a difference to someone!”

The very next day – I was contacted by a spectacular young lady named Michelle Baldwin who had been in the same class! She’s now making a documentary about theater life for performers and others and she said that she’d like me to be one of the people featured in this documentary, because the class made a difference for her and she feels as though it will help other performers and business people.  She brought a very bright fellow to my apartment today and we filmed.  She’s a very positive force.

Here I was planning to enter my beginning of March blog post on another topic. However, I couldn’t get the movie,  “It’s a Great Life” out of my mind. That’s the Christmas movie in which Jimmy Stewart dies and can’t think of a reason he’d be in heaven. He feels as though he never really made a difference on Earth. An angel lets him see the people whose lives he touched and how positive his contribution was.

I got a lot of joy from teaching that class.  Now, I realize that “ya neva know” what difference you’re making for others. When you’re afraid you’re not good enough, please know it’s just a thought. I’ll bet you’re a contribution to many people.

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March is Cabaret Month. The Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs will present the prestigious MAC Awards at BB Kings on March 19^th. Much of America doesn’t realize that there are so many wonderful shows playing in cabarets.  Some of the cabarets are supper clubs. New songs are being written and new performers and well known favorites thrill audiences nightly. The cost of a cabaret show including the food or drink minimum is usually lower than a ticket to a Broadway show. I would like to see all the hotels promote the great cabarets in the New York as well as our wonderful Broadway!

To buy tickets to the 26^th Annual MAC Awards click here: http://www.macnyc.com/

This post will be short and shhhhhhhhhhhh!  Don’t tell!

Have you noticed that the word Secret has become the common title for anything being taught? I apologize to the people I love who use this word. The first time I remember hearing it used to describe something to teach -rather than something to “fill me in on” – was when I was studying Stephen Covey’s, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I do remember loving the book. I didn’t question the word “secret” being used then.

I’ve become entranced with the word SECRET. I’m beginning to think it’s become the most overused word we have. It’s also used oddly. Instead of being something we don’t really want to “let out of the bag”, it’s become what we want to teach.  Does it make it seem more important for the student (the adult student, i.e., the shopper)

I hear an element of “Shhh!” in the word “secret”. I’m not supposed to be privy to that information. There’s something “naughty” about me knowing it.

But, isn’t what’s being taught in the video The Secret or the books that use the word merely something someone knows that you don’t yet know?   I wonder if kids in my first grade class in Brooklyn would have gotten more exited about arithmetic if we were told we were going to learn “the secret of addition!”? How about “the secret of spelling”?  This type of secret isn’t quite like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. Kids love knowing what they’re not supposed to know. At least, we did when we were kids. But “secret”, when I was a kid, meant “hush-hush”.

Secret could have a happy connotation at times like a “surprise birthday party” for someone should be kept secret till the event. That still implies to me that someone shouldn’t know something rather than everybody will be better off knowing this.

What is clever about using the word “secret” is that the slightly forbidden implication does attract people. Hmm…forbidding attracting…that could make another whole post.

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I’ve been facing one of the most interesting challenges of my life. I’m not saying that it’s an “I could die” challenge. However, it is VERY interesting to me. I’d be very interested to know what other seniors think of it.

I’m getting more and more evidence, through my daily activities, about the need for changing attitudes about technology among many people -especially men and women in the over 60 age range.  As you must know by now I authored a book about attaining and maintaining your optimum weight and fitness and I geared it to the over 50 years old group. While the same principle holds true for all age groups I geared it to that age range because I speak the language of older people and there are many of us now. I felt (I know) I could help many, many people. The method I designed for myself worked and continues to work for me. I can help people design their very own plan, one they can stick with because it’s geared to their body and because it’s designed to fit right into their own daily lifestyle.

I had/have the best mentor one could hope for, Bill Quain, who has coached many successful authors for years. He had to admit there’s been a change in the past couple of years since I began writing the book.

People I know and people I get to give talks to almost always get excited and buy the book and enjoy it and use it. Many people who read it have sent me the most heartwarming testimonies! To a person they tell me how much they love the cover design by Jack Parry of Parry Design. You can see a few of the testimonies and the book cover on my site www.bobbiehorowitz.com under Author. You can watch a recorded tele-seminar explaining what the book is about AND why it’s title is what it is. I’m overjoyed by the response of people I’ve gotten in touch with.

Okay – why am I writing this post?

People who have not met me or haven’t been on my email list won’t find my book!  In the past people would meander through a bookstore. They’d go to the shelves where all the books about a subject they might be interested would be.  They’d be attracted to a pretty cover with a clever title and they’d pick it up and browse through it.  My book would do great in that environment.

When people search the web, the process is quite different. They put in the topic they’re looking for (as simply as possible so that just those books they might be interested in show up. They have to keep the topic title simple so they get right to what they want. Some people might refer to the change as a “dumbing down” of our society.  Rather than having the title allude to something special in the particular book, it’s got to be very simple and blunt and not creative to get a high number of hits.  KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) is the rule of the day.

There are people who specialize in doing “key word searches” i.e., which words are used most often to search for a particular type of item.  I’m writing a second book with a title that’s based on a ”key word search.”  I’m actually co-authoring it with a wonderful man I was introduced to by Bill Quain. He was in Bill’s class. They’re a bit more than a decade younger than I.   I’ll write more about him and what the book is about when it’s ready to be published.

I can use this book, which will come up on web searches to continue to help seniors and also to bring attention to my first book. I can mention my other book when this book comes up on the search. They do go together nicely.   I do notice that books are being churned out these days.  I want to make sure our new book has great merit before publishing it  – and – today one needs to get it out there FAST.  I feel like I’m entering the Twenty First Century.

Remember a previous post in which I mentioned that I see the world progressing like the flame coming from a match that’s been lit?  We’re somewhere not that far from the beginning of that flame and we’re in a period of major transition.  We’ve quickly transforming from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Change is always a bit frightening. When I get concerned about my ability to learn the technology I freeze up for and instant and then I allow the “freeze up” sensations to be there and I dive into the waves of technology! Keeping up with the world keeps me young!

I’d love you to follow the process!

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It seems as though I’ve become obsessed with language.  I’ve recently realized how much our language can affect our thoughts and perceptions. I used to forget that people invented language as a means of sharing information with each other.  Once I started noticing oddities in our word usage it seems as though more oddities kept popping up.  I’m pretty certain these oddities can affect the way we think about things and I bet it affects all people.  I’m quite sure that English isn’t the only language in which this phenomenon occurs.  English, however, did become the second language for many people who came to America, England and other English speaking countries are home to people from many different homelands who were seeking refuge or a better life for themselves and their families. They found safe ground in English speaking countries. Of course, this wasn’t the case two thousand years ago. In recent (the past 2,000) years give or take a few, I wonder if we have greater bits of other languages incorporated into English than other languages have English or other languages incorporated into them.

Google has many listings about the oddities in our language. When I was younger I wouldn’t have even noticed this phenomenon.  Here’s an example of words with opposite meanings, in certain cases, coming to mean the same thing.  I couldn’t find the reason this may have occurred. For example, I couldn’t find a satisfactory answer explaining the reason “coming” and ”going” have been used to mean exactly the same thing.  When asked how things are going, I’ve heard some people say, “They’re coming along fine.” I’ve also heard people answer the same question or  “How are things coming?” by saying,   “Everything is going along fine.”

I found an interesting blog written by a linguist from the UK, who calls herself LynneGuist. Her actual name is M Lynne Murphy. She’s a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Sussex. She finds lots of oddities in the English Language. She talks about interesting British and American differences in the use of certain expressions. For example, In England one would say, “it’s down to you” to mean ‘it’s your responsibility to do that’, whereas an America one would say “it’s up to you” to mean the same thing!

What am I getting from all this?  When I was younger it seemed as though my friends and I often took the meanings of words to be sacrosanct.  Now, I’m noticing that absolute opposites are, sometimes, used do mean the same thing.  What this is doing for me is opening my mind to the possibility that things, possibly even historical events, etc didn’t happen the way we think they did – because the words describing what happened may have had different meanings when the scribe or historian was writing about an event. When I was a kid my teachers seemed to regard historical writings as using words to mean what a dictionary said they meant.  Now, I “get” that what was written about an historical event is not only just someone’s (or some group’s) view of what happened – it could have happened differently than we’ll interpret it as having happened because the words themselves were used differently.  It doesn’t mean the translation is “bad”. It just means it’s different that we think it is. Words may be used that were also used at the time of the event; but these words didn’t have the same meaning when the event occured as they do now. So, we may be interpreting the events wrongly. I’m sure that humans tried to create words that described the things, they were created to represent, as accurately as possible. However, humans made the words up and we shouldn’t get too hung up on words when we’re trying to interpret communications we get.

Can you think of any opposite words that can be used to mean the same thing?

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