Tilting at (lexical) windmills

[eldriwolf]

As a Witch, and a sometime word-smith, I try to be careful of the words I choose, and how I use them . From time to time I review the things I say, and perhaps choose a new windmill to tilt at

Comments

[leafshimmer]

I truly wonder sometimes whether you and I are psychically joined in some deep way... My copy of Homo Ludens (by Johan Huizinga) resurfaced while I was packing earlier in July and it's been inspiring some thoughts about exactly this topic! I find the focus on "Work" to be so imponderably dreary--and against our Progress as a species since Huizinga demonstrates with tremendous clarity that ALL the good stuff we enjoy has come about as a result of play, I prefer "discipline" for the focused, determined, ordered and often rather repetitive job of actually Manifesting the dreams, innovations, and fabulosity glimpsed in those supremely playful moments.

Marx wrote something like "work is the perfect sensuous activity of man" and this got taken up in the Golden Dawn and Crowley notion of "the Great Work." Which has continued to haunt us ever since. Thorn's phrases about doing the Work come from Gurdjieff, however, I believe (nobody seems to know just who trained Gurdjieff!).

More later my dear,

xo Shimmer

[eldriwolf]

--but of course, you have a copy of Homo Ludens!
---you may be one of the few witches besides me who does....
Hugs!
may your new house be thosandfold blessed

[sanacrow]

Count one more in that bunch. (Although, at the moment, I have no clue which box it's in...)

When we get more shelves and can set up the lending library again, I have plans to try and find a few more copies... it's on my "short list" of books I think every Witch should at least have a passing familiarity with.

[gnarlygnome]

Lower case *work* (aka *job*) is not good in my world. It might have been if it had been something I had prepared to do, something I was interested in. As it was instead something I had to grab quick due to Life Being What It Is, it's not a happy word and I do not identify with what I do for that bi-monthly check.

Uper case *Work,* probably with the definite article in front of it (aka *Chop Wood Carry Water,* or *Practice*) is very good indeed. I take pride in knowing how to do mundane things 'from scratch' and I'm not afraid to get dirty. The central underpinings (if you will) of Feri, the parts we could call Feri Practice are also good and also necessary and it's cool to get sweaty with those, too.

But then there's the mirth, the play, the juicey juicey yummy yummy haqppynekidferidanceo'creativity ...

[dbananza]

:)
i'm normally a Work Nerd, but i'm likin' this, big time!!

Good thinking, bad grammer

[jon_decles]

Dearest Eldri

Re: Good thinking, bad grammer

[eldriwolf]

--- Don, for what its worth, I stole the "each child" line from one of
E Nesbit's books--"Five Children and It" I think---
I could be misremembering somewhat, it has been forty or so years---but I Did notice that it was 'their' and not 'his' or 'its'
And I stand by my intention to avoid the generic he

Hugs!-(I have a carved rhino for you)
Good Hunting!
eldri

[mudpriestess]

I've been a copyeditor for ten years and I *love* that you are promoting "everyone / their". Not only is it the most simple and elegant solution to the problem of gender inclusivity and assumption-making, it is so widespread already in casual usage that it is going to become "correct" usage whether people like it or not. ("Zie" and "hir," like Esperanto, are never going to catch on, and using "he" as the neutral non-gendered pronoun is just... not polite anymore, if it ever was

[eldriwolf]

Thank you!--I first noticed using 'their' in that way in an E Nesbit book--the Quote is from "Five Children and It", I think.

Zie and Hir *Are* clunky.
---In speaking, one can sometimes use 'A' and A's- and folks wont even notice! (I got That one from Ursula K Le Guinn.)
It blurs a bit much towards 'dilect', though. (you know how vowels smear) It sounds somewhat like dropped 'h' He---

*-*-*-*-*
"Work" is a hard one, I Still sometimes use it..and have added "labor"(as in Giving Birth) to the list of useful substitutes. It aint All play, becoming Feri, but neither do I do it for pay..

--I often recommend a book by Lewis Hyde--"The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic life of Property"

Thanks Again
Good Hunting!
eldri