Is it just me, or are there certain words and phrases that just make you smile when you hear them used in conversation or on the news even (imagine the news making you smile these days!) , or read those words or phrases in a book?
For me it all started with any mention of July 3. July 3rd is arguably the best day of the year. It is the exact mid-point of the year, in most years it actually has it’s own name (aphelion: the point of orbit where the earth is farthest from the sun ), and it is my birthday. But I digress. So hearing July 3rd in a song or reading it in a book has always made me happy .
Other words and phrases that make me happy are when people honestly use the word Serendipity in their everyday lexicon (Serendipity has been my favorite word since the third grade when it was the title of my English class textbook reader).
Of course, another favorite word is Conundrum. I swear I hear and see it used more and more. I think it is on used on the news at least twice a week (puzzling times we live in ) , and I seem to see it used in nearly every book I pick up. It is even the name of a great book of literary puzzles and a heck of a wine!
And finally it is words and names of home that make me happy when I run across them in my reading. Well this week, I hit a home run on this front. I was reading C.H. Lawler’s new book “Living Among the Dead” and on PAGE ONE I see that the main character lives on Prytania Street in New Orleans – I LIVE ON PRYTANIA STREET IN NEW ORLEANS! Then I get to page 41 and I read “At the river across from Bayou Sara, I stopped and pondered the town”. I KNOW THAT TOWN! The main character leaves the area for some time and many pages later on page 212 I read “My path headed north , up into a place called the Felicianas.” And then a few pages later on page 222 “We had just followed another dead-end trail, one that lead us to the river at Bayou Sara”. And all the while the book is flashing back and forth to the narrator who is writing the tale from his bed as an old man, you guessed it on Prytania Street. Since my real life is spent continually travelling between Prytania Street in New Orleans and the Felicianas you can bet I enjoyed seeing it through someone else’s eyes as I read the book.
And guess what? Dr. Lawler will be joining us to sign his books this Saturday starting at 5pm during Polos and Pearls, so we will get to ask him the inspiration for this and his other books “The Saints of Lost Things” and “The Memory of Time”.
So , is it just me ? Or are there words and phrases that make you happy too?