No Man is an Island

Courtesy of my dear friend Kate (and Hemingway):

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway

I find that visual disturbing, to be honest, because I imagine my wrists gushing all over my laptop and ruining the glitter that's in the plastic the keys from which they are made. (Yay Asus!).  Secondly I find it fascinating to think of my thoughts flowing so freely and easily as blood does, forming some profound entity that would either captivate or cause one to vomit.

What am I doing, talking about blood and puke? Ew.

I don't think Hemingway was wrong here, some of my best writing moments, that even to this day are my favorite, are things that simply spilled out of me, stuff I didn't even know was there. And I'm finding that the writing that comes the easiest and that I still like the next day is the stuff that comes most naturally.

Sometimes I feel I am working so hard to contrive EXACTLY what I want to say, or what I have prejudged to be what I want, and then afterward I discover that this is, well, pretentious.  I think that my desire to write something phony is more of a fear to cover up the secrets of my brainwaves, because if I write the way I really think.....[insert irrational Lie here]; it probably wouldn't settle well with quite a few people.  They might even throw up.

(Get it? Eh? Ehhh?)

I guess that also means that some would be fascinated, and it the end, that would be beautiful.

"No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...." -John Donne 

Ok, so the dude couldn't spell.....



RMVB

Etymology: We really must get around to thanking the Brits....

...because they have given so much to our U.S. culture and language. Here they go again, giving us a lovely phrase like "basket case."

I was listening to this song and wondering what the heck it really meant because I couldn't think of how a picnic supply container had anything to do with heartbreak.

Back in the day of WWI the Union Jacks weaved their stretchers, because this is where the term orginiates. "Basket case" was how soldiers referred to the men who had lost all of their limbs in battle and needed to be carried from the field in a basket. Since then it has evolved into something that also means "one made powerless or ineffective, as by nerves, panic or  stress," or "a person who is mentally incapacitated or worn out" (Wiktionary.com and merriam-webster.com)

Although, I honestly don't think the evolution of the phrase is a far cry from it's historical parent: I would probably be driven to mental incapacity if my body was only a torso and a head.

Not quite what Sara Bareilles meant, either. Though if I'm wrong about that, I don't know how she played guitar.

Cheers!

"The history of a linguistic form..."

Merriam-webster.com is fun to read.

I thought I would start this morning with some writing, and, hearkening back to my last post, wanted to include the word "batten" in whatever it was I would write. But, being the exactness freak that I am, I wanted to look it up and, (here I am revealing what a huge dork I am), find out what the origins of the word were so I couldn't screw it up. Funnily enough, I haven't yet had time to write what I had planned.....

Pet peeve: when people use a word/phrase because it sounds familiar or similar to something that is familiar when it's not actually the correct word of phrase. Like when people say "I could care less," and mean that they don't give a darn. Really? So it IS possible for you to care less than you do now? How much less? A lot less? Someone who cares a whole heap about something, cares the most about it that they ever could care, could also care less... (It's I couldn't care less. "There is no way I could care less than I do now".....) I'm getting off topic a little.....

Anyway, here is what I found for "batten."

I saw that it really meant to fatten up or eat-so-much-you-want-to-chuck, or step on someone else's face to get to the finish first. Imagine my horror at the idea that I had been using and understanding this word incorrectly for 24 years! I thought it meant something along the lines of "fasten" or "secure" or "keep out robbers!"

Thanks to the Good Ole Gentlemen, (Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster:)), I was able to read the three main definitions, one of which included the robbers repellant.

But I thought it was interesting how the word has evolved over time. Batten comes from the Norse word which means to improve: and from there a "batten" is used to reinforce a construction join, certainly improving it (and keeping those thieves out!).

This was way too much fun for me to pass up doing again. Now, not only will I use batten correctly, but I can also use it in more than one way, stretching it to it's full capacity. So I think I'll make today "Etymology Saturday," and try to keep with the tradition.

It's Advent. Good time to start things.