Life - Altschmerz
n. weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.
Showing posts with label Obscure Sorrows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obscure Sorrows. Show all posts
Monday, April 1, 2019
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Life - Wytai
Life - Wytai
n. a feature of modern society that suddenly strikes you as absurd and grotesque—from zoos and milk-drinking to organ transplants, life insurance, and fiction—part of the faint background noise of absurdity that reverberates from the moment our ancestors first crawled out of the slime but could not for the life of them remember what they got up to do.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
n. a feature of modern society that suddenly strikes you as absurd and grotesque—from zoos and milk-drinking to organ transplants, life insurance, and fiction—part of the faint background noise of absurdity that reverberates from the moment our ancestors first crawled out of the slime but could not for the life of them remember what they got up to do.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
Friday, December 4, 2015
Life - Lachesism
Life - Lachesism
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
For a million years we’ve watched the sky
and huddled in fear.
But somehow you still find yourself
quietly rooting for the storm.
As if a part of you is tired of waiting,
wondering when the world will fall apart
—by lot, by fate, by the will of the gods—
almost daring them to grant your wish.
But really you can wish all you want,
because life is a game of chance.
And each passing day
is another flip of the coin.
Who could blame us for wanting to be there when it lands?
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
For a million years we’ve watched the sky
and huddled in fear.
But somehow you still find yourself
quietly rooting for the storm.
As if a part of you is tired of waiting,
wondering when the world will fall apart
—by lot, by fate, by the will of the gods—
almost daring them to grant your wish.
But really you can wish all you want,
because life is a game of chance.
And each passing day
is another flip of the coin.
Who could blame us for wanting to be there when it lands?
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Life - Onism
Life - Onism
n. the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time, which is like standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Life - Dead Reckoning
Life - Dead Reckoning
n. to find yourself bothered by someone’s death more than you would have expected, as if you assumed they would always be part of the landscape, like a lighthouse you could pass by for years until the night it suddenly goes dark, leaving you with one less landmark to navigate by—still able to find your bearings, but feeling all that much more adrift.
#dictionaryofobscuresorrows
n. to find yourself bothered by someone’s death more than you would have expected, as if you assumed they would always be part of the landscape, like a lighthouse you could pass by for years until the night it suddenly goes dark, leaving you with one less landmark to navigate by—still able to find your bearings, but feeling all that much more adrift.
#dictionaryofobscuresorrows
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Life - Nighthawk
Life - Nighthawk
n. a recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night—an overdue task, a nagging guilt, a looming and shapeless future—that circles high overhead during the day, that pecks at the back of your mind while you try to sleep, that you can successfully ignore for weeks, only to feel its presence hovering outside the window, waiting for you to finish your coffee, passing the time by quietly building a nest.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
n. a recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night—an overdue task, a nagging guilt, a looming and shapeless future—that circles high overhead during the day, that pecks at the back of your mind while you try to sleep, that you can successfully ignore for weeks, only to feel its presence hovering outside the window, waiting for you to finish your coffee, passing the time by quietly building a nest.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Life - Nodus Tollens
Life - Nodus Tollens
n. the realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore—that although you thought you were following the arc of the story, you keep finding yourself immersed in passages you don’t understand, that don’t even seem to belong in the same genre—which requires you to go back and reread the chapters you had originally skimmed through to get to the good parts, only to learn that all along you were supposed to choose your own adventure.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
n. the realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore—that although you thought you were following the arc of the story, you keep finding yourself immersed in passages you don’t understand, that don’t even seem to belong in the same genre—which requires you to go back and reread the chapters you had originally skimmed through to get to the good parts, only to learn that all along you were supposed to choose your own adventure.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Life - Mahpiohanzia
Life - Mahpiohanzia
n. the disappointment of being unable to fly, unable to stretch out your arms and vault into the air, having finally shrugged off the ballast of your own weight and ignited the fuel tank of unfulfilled desires you've been storing up since before you were born.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
n. the disappointment of being unable to fly, unable to stretch out your arms and vault into the air, having finally shrugged off the ballast of your own weight and ignited the fuel tank of unfulfilled desires you've been storing up since before you were born.
#DictionaryOfObscureSorrows
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Life - Gnossienne
Life - Gnossienne
n. a moment of awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private and mysterious inner life, and somewhere in the hallways of their personality is a door locked from the inside, a stairway leading to a wing of the house that you’ve never fully explored—an unfinished attic that will remain maddeningly unknowable to you, because ultimately neither of you has a map, or a master key, or any way of knowing exactly where you stand.
#Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
n. a moment of awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private and mysterious inner life, and somewhere in the hallways of their personality is a door locked from the inside, a stairway leading to a wing of the house that you’ve never fully explored—an unfinished attic that will remain maddeningly unknowable to you, because ultimately neither of you has a map, or a master key, or any way of knowing exactly where you stand.
#Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
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