What’s that you say? Ketchup,
mustard and relish? Ooh! That smoke keeps following me around. Anyone have an
extra hot dog stick?
Ahhh, summer chatter.
The words resonate with long days spent outdoors and sweet evenings by a
campfire.
When I was a young girl, summer started as
soon as I stood on the train platform at the ACR station on Bay Street in Sault
Ste Marie. When I heard that red and black engine come chugging down the track
I knew I soon would be on my way to Michipicoten Harbour where we had a “camp”.
That meant icy swims, all day fog horn blasts, reading comics by kerosene,
playing cards on a cleared off kitchen table and waking up to the sound of my
mom making cinnamon toast on the woodstove.
Folks today have
similar dear memories. Some cherish their beloved tent or cabin in the woods.
Others seek their “cottage”, where life slows down enough to enjoy a cocktail
on the dock or maybe even have a moonlight swim.
I imagine if you put all
the memories of summer activities into one spot (and maybe today that’s
Facebook or YouTube) you’d probably need several lifetimes to appreciate them. For
finding ways to communicate our thoughts and experiences is what we humans must
do.
Someone who has examined
our efforts to “get the point across” is Dr Tim Lomas, from the Department of
Psychology at the University of East London, England. He has been collecting words for a Positive
Lexology Project, words to explain “unexplainable” feelings. Some of the words
are new but most are from other languages. His list is an international theme
of consciousness.
So far he has listed
216 words. I took a look at his website and gleaned a few that I think pertain
to some of the feelings we get this time of year.
By coincidence, a
thunderstorm in full gear helped me out. I’ll explain. The day before I had
observed how extreme heat was cooking up giant white cauliflower clouds. The
next day skies showed off 100 shades of grey; fog was obscuring any sign of
islands or bays; rain was pelting the rocks and the deck; flashes of lightning
white were blinding out the horizon. Then a gigantic south wind blew over the
lake wrinkling the water into long curving lines. All the while thunder growled,
chomped and snapped at the air. Lake Superior was at the storm’s mercy.
I thought of the folks in
their tents up at the Agawa campground, remembering my own rainy tent days myself.
I was so grateful to be in a dry cabin watching the storm roil around us. Such
is Chrysalism (new English): the amniotic tranquility of being inside during a
thunderstorm.
I was hooked and ready
to bite at more words. How about those
times when we sit around a campfire telling stories and philosophizing? Sooner
or later you will discover Sonder (also new English): the realization that
everyone has an existence as vivid and complex as your own.
Sitting around
campfires also might give you a chance to experience Mangata, (Swedish): the
glimmering that moonlight makes on water. But hopefully by the end of the
evening you won’t be battling the burden of Morkkis (Finnish): a
moral/psychological hangover from one’s drunken antics the night before.
Since summer often
means travel, these words popped out. If you like to pick a spot on the map,
then you know Fernweh (German): the call of faraway places and homesickness for
the unknown. Or Xenia (Greek): guest friendship and the importance of offering
hospitality and respect to strangers. So after you finish making those 32
cheese and bologna sandwiches for all the company, feel free to visit someone
else’s place and get treated yourself.
Or maybe you desire a
solitary barefoot stroll on a long sandy beach. That’s Uitwaaien (Dutch): to
walk in the wind, to go out in the countryside to clear one’s head. Which is
wonderful as long as you can return to Cynefin (Welsh): a place where one feels
one ought to live; the relationship one has to the place one was born and/or
feels at home. For many that place is Lake Superior, one where it might be
possible to find Ondinnok (Iroquois): the soul’s angelic nature and innermost
desires.
And since today is a
fine day by the lake off I must go to enjoy some outside time. But before I get
playing I’m going to make some potato salad. And maybe, at the same time, indulge
in some Tjuvsmaka (Swedish): to taste or eat small pieces of the food when you
think no one is watching, especially when cooking.
