A few months ago my friend Andrea recommended the book Eat, Pray, Love. (She knows I have a fondness for travel memoirs.)In it, the author muses that every entity can be, in essence, boiled down to one word. People, cities, countries, you name it. She said she thought L.A. was "SUCCEED" and that New York was the subtly different "ACHIEVE". Then she said she thought Rome was "SEX".
That made me laugh.
It's an interesting concept though - what if I had to sum up the direction of my life in one word? Could you do it?
Sometimes I get inspired - and I think my word might be "CREATE".
Sometimes I get annoyed by my own unceasing curiosity and I bitterly reflect that I might be doomed to a while lifetime of "ASK" (slash "QUESTION", but that brings up a whole other set of issues).
Then I think that the questioning has certainly gotten me places so far, and hopefully will still in the future, seeing as it appears that I won't be able to turn my brain off anytime soon (except when watching American Idol, but that is another story), and that my word had better be "EXPLORE".
And then I get realistic. And I think about how I am really a bit of a daydreamer at heart, and if I am going to have a single word, an action verb really is wishful thinking. And so then, in those moments, I think that my word just might be "IMAGINE".
I liked this one - as I like all of your blogs. It's an interesting concept, to sum up the direction of your life in one word. However, I'm reminded of your "How Many Selves Do You Have?" post, in which you pointed out how very complex we are, so how can anyone sum up the direction of their life with just one word? At any given moment, I might be just plain "LAZY." Ha!
ReplyDeleteoh, mine would be in flux, much like you. But LEARN might be the most consistent, followed by CONNECT or CONTEMPLATE or simply FOLLOW. Maybe the last is really my first...
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