Thinking in Words

My sister tends to think in numbers. My husband is a visual person, and can instantly conjure a complex mental picture of almost anything (mixed blessing, to be sure!).

Me, I think in words. I can't remember not being able to read. Word search puzzles? Those are a no-brainer, because the words buried in the jumble of letters practically scream out to me. Often, when I glance at a paper, a misspelled word will pop out before I've even started reading. I love words. 

I love how some words sound like the sound they represent: Crack. Whisper. Meow. Huff. 

I love the silliness of some words. Wiggle. Smooch. Fluff.

I love profanity, when it's well-placed. I love words of simplicity and beauty. Rose. Love. Joy. Pray. I love the words for food, too. Enchilada. Sauerbraten. Pickle. Smorgasbord. Nectarine. Succotash. (Hate succotash, love the word.)

Since I am a person who is endlessly entertained by words, I also love names. I'm always curious about them, where they come from, how common or uncommon are they, and so on. In my part of the world, we are fairly close to the Navajo Reservation and some of my customers have great surnames thanks to their unique heritage: Manymules, Bigthumb, Tsinnijinni. I love the mellifluous pairing of a beautiful first name to a melodious surname. And I love the way a name reflects the hopes and dreams of the parent who bestowed the name. Girls named Rachel and Hannah and Sarah probably have parents who wanted them to be lovely, gentle, charming women. Name your son after your grandfather, and you are sending a cosmic wish into the universe: let some of Grandpa's best qualities come back into the family through this new life. 

I also love the silly, simple joy that I feel when I learn a new word, especially if it is a word I can really use. We visited my father-in-law recently. He's a DIY guy to the extreme and will use whatever bit of anything to do any project, before he'll go to the Home Depot and buy the right thing. From where I sat on the patio, I could see eight different kinds of fencing. 

When I returned from that trip, the word-of-the-day email waiting in my inbox was "bricolage". 

I love words. They make me smile.