Monday, September 21, 2009

my Word

Instead of the usual pleasantries of "I was busy" and "wow it's been forever," I am going to jump into what has been rolling around in my noggin as of late.  Thinking about it too much might make the urge to blog go away...

As I lay reading "Eat, Pray, Love" this afternoon, I came across a notion explained ingeniously by Elizabeth Gilbert (the author).  She explains that every city has its own word, a word that if you were to peek into the minds of its citizens, would be on the minds of most.  She lists SEX as Rome's word, POWER as the Vatican's, and SUCCEED as LA's.

Invariably, the conversation shifts from the words of cities to the words of people.  She wonders aloud about her journey and restlessly decides upon SEEK as her word.

Of course, this got me to thinking about my own word.  It couldn't be TEACH anymore, it couldn't be CHILDREN (lordy be, not yet), it couldn't even be SPORT.  My word is:

LEARN.

So much of my life is consumed by a thirst for knowledge.

I want to LEARN how to be a wife.
I want to LEARN how to live out-of-state for the first time.
I want to LEARN how to cook for two.
I want to LEARN what the Holocaust was about, what denotes a republic, and about the background of Jerry Jones (all of my Wikipedia searches from today).
I want to LEARN about my surroundings.
I want to LEARN why soldiers always nod at civilians.
I want to LEARN about educational philosophy and technology.
I want to LEARN about myself as a communicator.

I want to LEARN.
I must LEARN to go forward.

What is your word?

3 comments:

Brittney Bates said...

You may not blog often, but when you do, you do it right. This one has me thinking about my "word".
I'll let you know what I come up with.

Jamie said...

I struggled with this for about an hour, but I found myself always coming back to the word "empower."

I continually try to make myself feel empowered as a woman.
It is one of my passions in life to make other women feel empowered.
I also strive to empower those with disabilities.


by the way, Eat, Pray, Love is one of my favorite books.

Emily H. said...

I like that word for you, Jamie. And we continue on our quest to become twins!