Ahoyhoy™,
Crazy craziness crazes crazed crazy.
Crazed crazy
Okay, so the quote above is just something silly I said. I wouldn’t take it too seriously… Anyway…
Crazy. My writing always comes back to that word: crazy. Why? Well, I write about my life experiences and perspectives; most of that boils down to crazy—not necessarily in a bad way though. To understand my motivation for tying everything back to that word—and to understand why it describes my life so well—we need a brief intro to language…
Language is metaphorical. We use language(s) to communicate—here, we’ll focus on words. Pick a word, any word. Got it? Okay. What is it? If you chose the word dog, congratulations! I’ve chosen your word to kick this off! Let’s look at that word: dog. What does it evoke? I picture a furry, four-legged, clingy canine with the emotional maturity of a toddler, yet the physical strength of a grown adult: I picture Chokka (please see mascot for this site). I associate her with that word. I associate dog with positivity (the pinnacle of joy really)—at least when Chokka’s the association that pops up. Sometimes she isn’t. Sometimes a tiny spy from my favourite Hayao Miyazaki film (Heen from Howl’s Moving Castle) appears; sometimes I even picture Elvis Presley (singing Hound Dog)… Those are only a few of my associations, a few of my direct associations—it doesn’t even touch indirect associations. Plus, your associations will differ from mine, since we have different life experiences; that changes the context. This highlights an important problem with metaphors: though incredibly powerful, they’re not the actual thing—they only represent the actual thing… Consequently, to solve that problem, I need to bridge our differences with enough context to transmit what I’m thinking into your head.
NOTE: This is yet another reason why I lean heavily on humour when communicating; it solves the communication problem best whenever I involve myself—before I derail this entire essay though -->
Absent context, we miscommunicate. Sometimes, that isn’t so bad—like when a word contains a narrow range of associations. For example, when you go to Tim Hortons to order Timbits and ask for the “old-fashion” ones, the difference between getting Old Fashion plain or Old Fashion glazed isn’t life-changing.
NOTE: Okay, I'm assuming it's not so bad, but hey, maybe it's one of the most life-changing events in your life. If you're one of those people, I apologize, and I hope this apology suffices. More importantly, I hope you don't run into that situation ever again...
However, when a word has a broad range of associations, ambiguity can change lives. For me, that word’s crazy.
Next time, we’ll take a look at the word crazy so we can get on with the story. Thanks for reading!
Thank you for your time,
Roybert S. Henanigans
P.S. 96: I’ve updated my Contact Me page explaining how you can help me if you choose to. This includes a messaging form, my gmail address, my Twitter account, and a donation button to my Ko-Fi page. I’ll update specifics gradually. If there’s one thing I could ask for above all else, I’d ask for two—then I’d use one of those two to say that the best way to help is to share my work with someone.
On a serious note, thank you so much for reading—it truly means the world to me!
justcallmeroybert 