The quotidian is the everyday fishpond in which each of us swim. we don’t know about what’s outside our quotidian pond for the same reason no fish knows about water. No one can know what they don’t know.
All learning is news from beyond the pond.
News from beyond needn’t be big news to be worth learning.
Anything useful or interesting will do.
I first heard the word, vicissitudes, from Leonidas Romanos, a refuge from Communist Romania. English was his adopted language. I spoke English since I was born. I had to look-up the word.
The word, vicissitudes, describes the annoying disruptions that are always a problem; one word that does the work of seven. How handy.
How is it that a refuge from Communist Romania knew about a word in English that, I, a native speaker, didn’t know existed?
It’s a matter of who you’ve been speaking to.
Leonidas Romanos grew up in a classic European culture in which learned colleagues spoke to each other in a manner more formal than colloquial.
When Leonidas escaped Communists tyranny in Romania he had to learn a new language, he looked for those words in English that stylistically matched the mode of speaking to which he was accustomed.
I, on the other hand, grew up in rural regions of Midwest American. If anyone there ever used the word, vicissitudes, I didn’t hear it.
I’m glad I finally did.
No one escapes the quotidian, but everyone’s quotidian can be resized. Mine got a little bigger just by learning an English word spoken by a Romanian. It wasn’t only the word, it was also about understanding personal vocabulary choices and why they’re made.
Oh, big deal! Who cares? Why pay attention to stuff like that. If it’s not about money, sex, sports, or food, it’s boring. People who say that, spend a lot of time being bored. They’ve no interest in anything outside their comfortable quotidian. They already know everything they need to know.
Bored people bore me.
Sorry that sounds so snarky. I suppose it’s because I’ve no empathy with that way of thinking. For me, anything new I stumble across in my quotidian world is welcomed to stay.
Every new thing I learn makes my world bigger, brighter, and more interesting.
Quotidian is synonymous with mundane, but here’s nothing mundane about learning new stuff. Anyone’s quotidian is resized when something new is learned.
Learning a single new word, like vicissitudes, may seem a very small expansion of day-to-day life, but new words open the door to new ideas, and new ideas are guaranteed to expand anyone’s quotidian fishpond.
Vicissitudes, led me to musing about personal vocabulary choices, and why they’re made; which led me to thinking about how much the words available to any culture affect the ideas possible in any culture.
Germans know all about schadenfreude. It remains a fuzzy notion to English speakers because they don’t have any such word in their vocabulary.
Choices inside anyone’s quotidian world go ‘round in circles. Fresh choices are outside.
Some dogs are content with chasing their own tail.
Other dogs think a run outside more interesting.