Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Will wonders never cease?

I had to google that phrase because I wasn't sure if it was "will wonders ever cease"  or " ...never..."  Apparently it is the latter.  I'm still not exactly sure what it means, but it seems fitting for a blog title, when I'm on such a role and posting two days in a row.

Speaking of not knowing what something means, I came across the word 'sanguine' twice recently on the internet.  I've know for quite some time that it is a temperament word (I thought that would didn't have an a in it, but it does...temperament I mean, not sanguine).  Anyway... sanguine means confident.  I always thought it meant melancholy.  Doesn't it sound melancholy?  Actually I'm not even really sure how to pronounce it, but the way I say it in my head sounds melancholy.  Am I making a point?  Not sure, but in the two ways that I saw the word recently melancholy didn't make sense so I looked it up, and lo and behold,  it means confident. 

Interestingly while spell-checking 'temperament', blogger told me that 'internet' is wrong.  I was pretty sure it wasn't, but I searched it in my trusty paperback dictionary that helped me with 'sanguine'.  I thought this dictionary might predate the ole internet (sad huh?), but actually it is there and it's supposed to be capitalized.  I'm not doing that, it doesn't seem like it should be capitalized.

Would you believe I actually had an idea of something to write about today, and none of the above is it?

Remember how yesterday (well really the night before into yesterday) Jake had a party?  He's on a Hunger Games kick so the plan was to play that game at least in the morning.  The neighborhood version of Hunger Games is basically multiple house hide and seek with a few plastic swords and back packs that may or may not have bananas in them.  No one gets killed, no one is even supposed to get hurt.  Why do I say 'supposed to'?  Maybe because as the game was winding down and Jake and a friend were running to pick up some nerf bullets, they tripped over each other's feet.  Jake fell on top of his friend more or less smashing the poor friend's face into the road.  It was a very sad scene and like Jake, this poor guy is also in A Christmas Story which opens in just a few days.  The poor kid's face is all scraped up, and Jake feels horrible about the whole thing.  I don't feel very good about this either.  For one thing as the mom, I of course "knew that something like this would happen".  I also know however, that Jake could not wait to have more than just the neighborhood kids here to play this fascinating game.  So I allowed it.  How many times do we as parents let our kids do things that may be fraught with danger?  Basically after being a mother for 18 years, I can confidently answer, "ALL THE TIME!"  Ugh, life is hard!!  Really, REALLY HARD!  Sometimes you can just be running along having the time of your life and all of a sudden your face (or someone you care about's face) is dripping with blood.  Sometimes it's enough to make you want to stay on the couch all day.  There are too many dangers out there, between falling and getting hurt, or saying the wrong thing and beating yourself up for the rest of the day, or finding out that someone's cancer has taken a turn for the worse, or finding out that people whom you respect are not nearly as charitable as they profess to be, or finding out that people aren't as loyal as you thought they were.  It's just a mess sometimes.  People are flawed.  I don't want to get hurt and I certainly don't want my kids to get hurt.  It's painful.  Seriously life is painful. Love is painful.   Pain and love are two sides of the same coin, I think.  If we don't open ourselves up to love, there may be a lot less pain, but what would be the point of that.   Even the guy with the bloody face thinks that the game was all worth it in the end.

2 comments:

Tiffany said...

Wow, another post...this is great! I remember the word sanguine from personality tests. I have the opposite reaction to the word, it sounds so peaceful to me. Like if I'm sanguine, I'm just calm and at peace and content. Funny how different minds work.
You forgot to mention that the boy who scraped his face did WIN the Hunger Games. I heard that poor Jake was almost more upset than Dawson. I'm sure he still feels terrible. Accidents happen though and I totally agree that it was a great idea to let them play even with the risk. Great post and I totally agree.

ann marie said...

Well that's funny! I was just reading an article on Lou Reed and the word sanguine was used to describe his feelings about his later music. I have no idea if I'm pronouncing the word right but I pronounce it like this...san-gwin and now after reading your post I feel like I need to look it up to see the proper way. I never use this word but I remember it from high school as being on some sort of SAT prep test. That and gazelle. My dad was sitting in the kitchen doing some test prep sat thing and the sentence was something like, she moved like a gazelle and my dad kept saying, read the whole sentence to figure out the meaning and I kept getting stuck on how to even pronounce the word. The fact that I got to high school and did not know there was an animal called a gazelle is embarrassing me at this point! And my sister was in the background telling my dad he was just making up words. And she was a freshman in college. So yes. We were well educated folk! Anywaaaaaay! I will shut up now! Oh and the word verification was labisel, which sounds like a medicine you put on when you have gotten some sort of disgusting skin rash. Oh dear, look at this awful rash I have! I need the labisel! ps...i am having the WORST day of homeschooling ever ever ever and I am merely trying to amuse myself and make it through the next few minutes without harming someone. please forgive the long comment :)