No one can fathom what happens between a human being and language.

[newredshoes]

This morning on my way out the door, I picked up a book off my shelf almost by chance. I was running late and wouldn't have time to grab the Red Eye, the Trib's free daily. What was in my hand was About This Life by Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams, which is a desert island book

Comments

[diner]

Finally, I said, tell your daughter to get out of town, and help her do that. I don't necessarily mean to travel to Kazakhstan, or wherever, but to learn another language, to live with people other than her own, to separate herself from the familiar. Then, when she returns, she will be better able to understand why she loves the familiar, and will give us a fresh sense of how fortunate we are to share these things.

This in particular, from experience and observation, is essential. The first author to pop in my head while reading this is James Joyce. He wrote of Dublin when he was living elsewhere. "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." It's odd, but true.

[newredshoes]

Oh, that absolutely fits. Elsewhere in the introduction he talks about loving Moby-dick, which also just fits. Absence as a clarifying feature -- yeah, you're right.

[swankyfunk]

Yes. Yes to all of that. All three are intertwined. The first two are always ongoing, the third may not always come to you but take it when you can, or just make it happen. There is just something exhilaratingly inspiring about tearing yourself away from the familiar and being somewhere else for the first time.

[ceitfianna]

Yes to all of those. What a wonderful way to say it and to understand what it takes to nurture a young mind.

[pneumatique]

oh, yes. i mean i can't speak from experience, but those are things i understand to be true at an almost instinctual level. excellent.