Words are Little Gifts!

An excerpt from Philip Roth's 1969 novel, Portnoy's Complaint:

"Then there's an expression in English, "Good morning," or so I have been told; the phrase has never been of any particular use to me. Why should it have been? At breakfast at home I am in fact known to the other boarders as "Mr. Sourball," and "The Crab." But suddenly, here in Iowa, in imitation of the local inhabitants, I am transformed into a veritable geyser of good mornings. That's all anybody around that place knows how to say—they feel any sunshine on their faces, and it just sets off some sort of chemical reaction: Good morning! Good morning! Good morning! sung to half a dozen different tunes! Next they all start asking each other if they had a "good night's sleep." And asking me! Did I have a good night's sleep? I don't really know, I have to think—the question comes as something of a surprise. Did I Have A Good Night's Sleep? Why, yes! I think I did! Hey—did you? "Like a log," replied Mr. Campbell. And for the first time in my life I experience the full force of a simile. This man, who is a real estate broker and an alderman of the Davenport town council, says that he slept like a log, and I actually see a log. I get it! Motionless, heavy, like a log! "Good morning," he says, and now it occurs to me that the word "morning," as he uses it, refers specifically to the hours between eight A.M. and twelve noon. I'd never thought of it that way before. He wants the hours between eight and twelve to be good, which is to say, enjoyable, pleasurable, beneficial! We are all of us wishing each other four hours of pleasure and accomplishment. Why, that's terrific! Hey, that's very nice! Good morning! And the same applies to "Good afternoon"! And "Good evening"! And "Good night"! My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets—no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!"

Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint

Glimmer

"Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings (as well as other members of the animal kingdom) intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. While greeting customs are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship, they exist in all known human cultures. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. This topic excludes military and ceremonial salutes but includes rituals other than gestures." -from Wikipedia

This concept of analyzing mornings came out of greeting the sun, and all the different ways people around the world greet the morning. Sometimes we shun it. Sometimes we embrace it. Sometimes we wake up late and want to start over. My mornings have been slow and blurry as of late. I'm tired. And not inspired. But within each morning is still a glimmer of possibility....
-I could do a project from How to be an Explorer of the World!
-I could make new bean salads!
-I could kiss my children!

Good Morning from Kanye

"on this day we become legendary"

Stand the Pain

"Brother stand the pain; Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal."

-Mevlana Rumi

Seize Life

"At six in the morning they're next to my bed ready to seize life."

-Louis C.K., referring to his two daughters

Taeao

Taeao is morning in the Samoan language. You can also say Talofa lava as a good morning greeting in Samoan. Which gets us to another way to start a day. Look up one word or phrase from a language you want to learn every morning. Maybe you took Spanish for years in school but never spoke it. Use five minutes in the beginning of the day to say good morning (buenos dias) and walk through the rest of your day feeling like an integral part of the world community, like the words of hundreds of languages are right on the tip of our tongues, like in a blink of an eye we can communicate to someone halfway around the globe, like the same morning sun we see rising up from a blue sky is the one that sinks down in the lower hemisphere of the planet. We're all watching the same stars, and drinking water that is 4 billion years old....

Talofa lava. Talofa lava. Talofa lava.

A Return

Grateful I waken

my soul returns inside the

bounds of the body

-Debby Bruck


I think the haiku form is a perfect way to capture some mornings. I've been thinking about what represents a morning. A birth? Rebirth? In this haiku by Debby Bruck I love the way a morning becomes a return. Like you're sleeping and in a dreamlike haze and when you wake up your soul jumps right back (or forward) into place. Like the soul takes a break too.

And while it's on break, it allows your subconscious to wander, spreading your thoughts into dreams about ones who have passed away, or surreal landscapes, or thousands of other images.