Welcome to Vocabulary School, a silly yet instructive newsletter that promotes vocabulary building. Thank you for reading and supporting my work! To help me grow, share with a friend and make sure you are subscribed to get a weekly word to add to your working vocabulary to better communicate with the world.
One of my worst habits is that I check my email constantly: before bed, a million times throughout my day, while I make dinner, immediately upon waking. Who knows what I’m hoping to find in there but I should check again just to make sure. Tuesday night, the skies opened up and rained on the last inning of the Phillies game. Eager to return to my darkened lair where the friends were about to become lovers, I went to bed without knowing the game’s outcome. Before getting in my pajamas, I saw that I had three new emails. That’s too many, so naturally I gave into my goblin brain to reach for my email rather than the friends who are just about to become lovers. Right off the bat, the first email was about the Hulu/Disney+ price increase that really hit me the wrong way following the Jimmy Kimmel mishegas from last week, this week, and the foreseeable future. I didn’t cancel my subscription yet but normally when someone more powerful than me puts me under thumb, my impulse is to steal from them. I had a manager once who was such a bitch1 that I stole her good scissors from her desk. Those scissors are now my gardening scissors. But does taking my money and attention from Disney elicit the same limbic response as stealing scissors or am I just going to keep feeding the mouse?
This Week’s Vocabulary List
The other two emails were from Jessica which made me truly laugh out loud. I talk to Jessica a few times a day over numerous platforms. You should have seen our chat last week when we were trying to coordinate The Life of a Showgirl plans. AI could never cogently learn language and discourse from that exchange. The first was an accounting of a new class I am not brave enough to try and the second was a dedicated word request. Send your word requests my way!!
“Timely” from Black Madonna by Tayler Simon
Temerity (adjective): excessive confidence or boldness; audacity
Jessica shared this poem with me but since I don’t have reproduction permission, I’ll summarize. The speaker of the poem possesses “temerity” to speak on behalf of dignity, so much temerity that it possesses the characteristics of a bubbling geyser when the speaker allows but the profusion of such boldness never comes in time.
The speaker of the poem has the confidence to defend dignity but only in retrospect. Violations of dignity that happen in the moment can be shocking, so it’s understandable to only regain temerity in hindsight. Who knows what someone is capable of, so regaining full command of your temerity is only possible in a safer environment.
Temerity is an effective word choice because it’s uncommon in informal writing. Its formality reinforces the magnitude of its contained audacity.
It’s important to have temerity when speaking out against injustice and suffering. Being bold can contribute to liberation since none of us are free if we aren’t all free.
I look forward to getting my hands on the rest of this collection and getting into the poet’s other work!
If you’re like me, you will pick up a book of poetry and really feel like a scholar in touch with the entire universe. To replicate that feeling, buy Black Madonna or request it at your local library.
Practical Applications
In an effort to not get swallowed whole by the void, Michelle and I have joined the Young Friends organization at our local art museum. We’ve had the opportunity to meet some interesting people who are trying their hardest to establish a third space, celebrate the arts, and foster community. At the beginning of the month, we went to a cocktail party as part of a larger celebration of artists, including the opening of Anila Quayyum Agha’s Interwoven exhibit. For anyone seeking to kidnap me, I can be easily lured into an empty art gallery. I could have sat quietly all evening watching the shadows of All the Flowers Are For Me, an installation of a laser cut steel cube illuminated from within. There are so many places to look and interrogate light and shadow and I am eager to participate in the museum’s guided meditations in this particular space.
While resting my knee after subjecting myself to heels, I sat in front of Stealing Beauty (Red) which is red laser cut steel flowers on a white wall, lit from a light box on the ground. The floor level lights allowed for shadows to appear above the flowers, lending a ghostly appearance of dead or dying flowers. Those shadows really stuck in my brain all these weeks later. I read Anila Quayyum Agha’s artist statement and she emphasized the importance of excavating traditional forms and methods and “elevating them to the extraordinary.” She uses reflection and shadow in her work to stand in for larger dialogues that challenge the past, present and future. Stealing Beauty is occupying my brain because of what the shadows above mean for our current society and the firehose of despair we’re either daintily sipping or drowning in. What would those who came before us say about this?
The shadows of what came before us loom over us and implore us to summon the temerity to finish the job. Would they have cancelled their streaming services without a second thought or scream at their congressperson at a restaurant? Would they protect their neighbors from danger and do whatever is necessary to shield them and their families from harm? Not to say, “this too shall pass,” but the only way out is through and we have to find ways to make it possible without giving into the temptation of despair. The light can be at the bottom where we currently reside but we can bring it with us as we climb back up.
Friendly/Unfriendly reminder to make sure your attention aligns with your values. Interrogate those around you who support things you find detestable and challenge them or simply let them go. Check your socials for acceptable overlaps. Not all fitness, snack, or art creators are created in the image of justice and equality.
Love,
Andrea
She refused to say Merry Christmas to me after I closed the restaurant on Christmas Eve Eve because two other servers and I found out another server was getting $200 shift pay and a bottle of liquor for working New Year’s Eve and we refused to work unless we got it too. If she ever reads this: Fuck you; I stole your scissors.
Make sure to ask Andrea about the time when she accidentally was the first person in Dwight Howard’s Instagram live. She has always had the juice.