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In A Word, to be Absurd!

(Spiritual Insight Guide for the Teacher)

by Teresa Allen

contents

Introduction: 

After moving to Phoenix in 1985, my husband and I joined a local toastmaster's club.  He was an accomplished toastmaster, I was a beginner.  My introductory speech was called, "Life is Language."  Unfortunately, that speech is lost but in it, I talked about teaching English overseas (in China, Thailand, Kuwait), and about my Brahmin friends in Calcutta telling me, "people here will laugh at you when you say, 'budder,' instead of 'butter'."   

I ended that fledging speech with, "Well, it's like an old Scotsman once told me, 'You can't always take the language out of the country, but, you can certainly take a shot of whiskey, now and then.'"

Life pretty much is Language: it's the tool for Human Intelligence, if not the creator of our wit and entertainment.  Language offers us quality, mystery, roots and of course, expression.   It defines who we are in our given culture, it structures and holds us to our socialization, and, because language is thought, it can release us from Maya -- our self-imposed illusions about reality.  If you speak right, without malice and harm, good things will find you.  Right Speech is Good Karma.  

Since grade school, I've collected books on language and kept files with language articles and note pads listing unusual words or notable quotes from writers.  Most of my lists had to do with "self-improvement," or "improving my vocabulary."  To better express my views, I must increase my pool of words, improve my spelling and expunge unnecessary and vulgar words that taint expression.  And, it's a joy to simply find recreation with language (cross-word puzzles, pneumonic devices, word poems).  In the mid 1980's I created, "In a Word," a newsletter forming the basis for this book and offering my personal relationship with language. 

I subtitle this book:  Spiritual Insight Guide for the Teacher, or anyone professing wisdom and right thought -- should be the most exalted member of society.  Accordingly, teachers must carefully choose what they say and how they say it.  Having command of the language is having command of thought and action. 

Mantra:  "From this day forth, I expunge unnecessary vulgar words and words that express anger and harm."

Contents:

1. A Harvest of Words:  Toward a Masterful Vocabulary

2. The Absurd

3. Synesthesia -- beyond words

4. Words to the Wise:  Verbum Sat Sapienti

5. Poems and Pneumonic Devices  (Tumid, Timid, I dare say.  Did you just say that I was daft?)

6. "You've got Malapropisms?"  Problem Words 

7. Waltzing with Shakespeare

8. Final Words:  the Middle Way and the Power of Language