Key Word Project; the meaning of words and the perception of people who use them. Part 2

 Today we finish our list of words.  We will continue to look at the dictionary meaning ant then we will look at the word more as what it means to me or people in my life.  

Word #5:  Freedom 

Miriam Webster defines this as the quality or state of being free.  

I will attach here a link to a. video that shows my favorite definition of this word lately: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YHVC1DcHmo. The joy and movement in this video by John Baptiste, the dancing, the song, I wish we all could feel like that.  

Freedom can mean so many things.  As a teenager I longed for the "freedom" of living on my own.  I moved out and quickly realized that I wasn't free to do whatever I wanted.  Everyone wanted money from me.  

Freedom was an explosive word at the end of the civil war.  As so many people who had been born into slavery found that they no longer wore their lifelong bonds.  

Word #6;  Sadza 

This word isn't in the dictionary but I found many explanations of it when I went on line to learn how it was made.  It is a cornmeal mash that is like a cereal.  It is almost pure white in most of the pictures I saw.  and as near as I can tell it is similar to grits or polenta.  It is boiled for some time and used like a starchy base (like rice)   

I look forward now to making a chicken stew with chicken, onions, tomatoes and peppers and serving it with greens and a serving of sadza.  this will be served with a light amber beer, probably a gluten free one made from sorghum to help keep the meal more authentic.  

Word #7;  Civilization 

Miriam Webster definition; 

1.) a relatively high level of cultural and technological development 

2.) The culture characteristic of a particular time and place 

This word could go on with definition after definition.  Everyone seem to have a different one.  But the image I have of that word is Europeans secure in their own superiority crossing the world to take whatever they wanted.  There is a joke about the National Museum of England that has to do with the fact that while there are artifacts from England in the museum it has things from all over the world that the English just took from countries when they were there.  

But to me civilization is a place where we all respect each other and support each other.  I think that restorative justice, food justice, fair pay, These are the things that make a civilization great.  

Key Word Project; the meaning of words and the perception of people who use them.

 What do words mean?  When we look at definitions we often have to look from different sides of the word.  Play for instance can mean a very different thing to a 12 year old child than to their 45 year old father.  This comes to mind as I read through the literature of colonialism and that of globalization.  To a titan of capitalism, fat and happy with his tie firmly knotted in a double Windsor the world seems like a place full of opportunity and profit.  To a cashier ringing up the 200th package of toilet paper that day worrying about how their meager paycheck will pay the bills the only positive effect they can see from globalization is that they can buy a small package of strawberries at the end of their shift.  

The first word we will tackle is WEALTH 

Wealth 

Oxford English Dictionary defines wealth as; 

The condition of being happy and prosperous; well being (obsolete) 

This definition does not necessarily correlate to our readings.  It is a definition of wealth that is mostly obsolete although we still use it.  I often consider myself having wealth even as I live from paycheck to paycheck as I am mostly healthy, have loving family, have a place to live and know how to feed myself and my loved ones.  

Prosperity consisting in abundance of possessions, ‘worldly goods’, valuable possessions, esp. In great abundance; riches Affluence.  

This definition is more in line with our readings.  Especially as we read white tiger and Dasgupta.  

From middle English, as a relation to health. 

 

Wealth is a concept that is very old but has had many meanings throughout history.  Here in the United States as in many other countries we see wealth as equaling success, with it comes standing, ease, better health, better food, access to more things.  If you have spent your life in serving people as I have, through retail, food, coffee or beer and wine you are seen as someone that isn’t successful.  We see wealthy people succeed in politics without experience or the abilities to do the job but we think “well they are wealthy, so they are successful, so they will be successful” even though we wouldn’t let a successful real estate magnate operate on us or fix our car without the proper education.  This country, and others like India envision wealth as the solution to everything that is wrong with their life.  I have worked all my life (which is quite a while at this point) and never been wealthy.  My success has always been written in my family, and in my jobs has always been more about happiness and enjoyment, so in that I have “wealth”.  

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Word #2 OOZE 

Miriam Webster  English Dictionary definition; 

1.) A soft deposition the bottom off a body of water

2.) A piece of soft wet plastic ground : a marsh or bog that results from the from the flow of a spring, stream or brooklet. 

We often talk of oozing out of bed or blood oozing from a wound.  In our reading of the white tiger he spoke of the ooze of the mud as it swallowed his mother's burning body.  In this aspect it had a monstrous quality feeling threatening and possessive.  

Word #3. MUD. 

Miriam Webster English Dictionary Definition. 

1.) A slimy sticky mixture of solid material with a liquid and especially water 

2.) Abusive and malicious remarks or charges 

Mud can be what oozes (see above) through your toes on a barefoot walk into the back yard.  It can also be what you dish on your coworker or another politician.  It can also be your name, albeit spelled differently, when you have been disgraced.  We can build huts from mud or make bricks and then build houses.  

Word #4.  Food. 

Miriam Webster Dictionary Definition. 

1.) Material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body. of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital process and to furnish energy.  

2.) Inorganic substances absorbed by plants in gaseous form or in water solution  

These definitions lack the warmth and passion I feel about food.  Food is what I sell at work (I work in a grocery store and while I may manage the Beer and wine department we talk a lot about food in its various forms) its what I prepare at home for my family.  I have spent my life thinking about preparing, serving food.  It is often the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before bed.  I spend my days off when I feel well working in my kitchen on making food that we can sit at the table and eat together.  It also is something that can create a feeling of satisfaction and security or on the other hand it can take away security.  For anyone who has had to put everything in their basket back because they realized they couldn't pay for it or have had to go without food for any length of time food can come with the attachment of insecurity.                                                                                                                                          

An Old Friend

A friend wrote me an email 

lengthly in its words

it was larger in substance

as the small words formed 

to reveal the details of a life lived 

at times alongside mine 

and other times far away

We live in different places 

but both are married

both have children 

both tried to be better parents 

than the examples we'd seen before 

the continents different

but the struggles still very similar 

What anxiety is left from a past moment

that we feel in the present 

as if the past is somehow catapulted 

into the now, into the present 

How can it be that my breath comes in bursts

and my heart somehow tries to beat out of my chest 

As breath calms, and my heart returns to its normal rythm, 

I think what was that? Why did I feel so scared? 

Who can help me if it happens again 

Where do we turn as adults when the fear, 

the panic, the pain of our childhoods stands up before us?

But a friend writes me an email 

and we talk about how we laughed 

we talk about how we danced all night sometimes, 

running to catch the ferry to go home to houses 

that weren't always as welcoming as they could've been. 

we write back and forth about the time 

when we only thought about what the next song was 

and if it would be good enough to continue dancing 

or should we go sit on the steps and drag a breath 

of sweet clove smoke from an aquaintance we found outside.

We write about our pain, and our loves 

write about our history and a hoped for future 

we continue to tell each other stories that we shared 

and stories we didnt but we continue to write, emails, 

back and forth across time zones and oceans, across time 

a friend wrote me an email.

Co-Vide

I want to sit
In a small cafe
And drink an espresso
As people walk by the window
Uninterested, unafraid
Unaffected by the death
That seems to lurk
In every person, table, shopping trolley.
I want to go to work
And smile at people
A visible smile
Not hidden
By a mask.
A mask not of death but of fear
For myself
For those I love
At home, sad from
The news that keeps coming
The stories telling of more
Out of work
Trying to decide
What to do without.

Death in Portland


When I die
I want you 
To put me out
On the curb

Put a sign 
On me
Free, and maybe 
Some hipster

Will take me home
Prop me 
In the corner 
And hang their coats 

From my rigor stricken
Hands and place 
Their hats
On my head.

Apple Pie

---Jason Murray

Mother’s kitchen is lit

Only by the glow of

The oven’s feeble light.

Sitting framed by the glass

In the oven door

A pretty little pie

Alone, but not lonely.

Basking in the heat of the oven

Turning form

Pastry pale to a flaky,

Golden brown.

Mother walks in

Changing the light

With a wave of her hand

Across the switch plate.

Glancing at the pie

Through the glass

And at the timer’s

Slow turn of the time

She pulls out a bowl

And starts on the process

Of cooking dinner.

Aunt Daphne walks in

Eager to talk about her day

Potatoes are peeled and eggs boiled for potato salad.

A piece of carrot

Disappears among the little details of Daphne’s day,

People and things

That have little to do with the

Details of dinner.

Apa

Olive Murray
---Jason Murray


Loss weighed heavily
on his mind
the sense that they
all were leaving
first his son
then his mother
now, his wife.

30 years
together
less than a life
but more than
most are together
he left then

left his home
left his work
left his country
and went walking
about the world

across marble plazas
polished by years of
quiet feet
these plazas now ruined
by bombs and civil war
a plaza where terrified
civilians hid from
a snipers rifle

He went to the
home of his people
the quiet pubs
full of men drinking
and talking of the same things
they've talked about
a hundred pints before
He walked quiet
through the graveyards
and thought of the love
he had buried back home.