We do not know “that without a story you have not got a nation, or a culture, or a civilization. Without a story of your own to live you haven’t got a life of your own.” –sam keen: TO A DANCING GOD.
Credit: Goodreads
Here is what I remember learning about words (with the help of S. I. Hayakawa):
THE WORD IS NOT THE THING.
PEOPLE HAVE MEANINGS FOR WORDS.
CONTEXT DETERMINES MEANING.
“Only connect! … Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. –E. M. Forster (Howards End)
“. . . the chief problem of teaching anything in our atomized period lies precisely in the fact that the ordinary student cannot or will not connect the few facts he knows, the slim insights he has previously attained, the chance extensions of sensibility into which he has been once or twice tempted, into a large enough context to make sense of the world he inhabits, or the works of art he encounters. Only connect! should be the motto of all critics and teachers.” –Leslie Fiedler
“Reach out and touch someone you love!”
“Remember this, my child: The basics: Being able to count to 100. Knowing LEFT from RIGHT. Reciting AND understanding the alphabet. All else follows from this.” So, quadratic equations, the Pythagorean Theorem, and the Bill of Rights: learned in time. “Know your basics.” (“Oh, and know, also, the colors of the rainbow: R-O-Y-G-B-I-V, for that is basic to appreciating BEAUTY.”)
Memories of a Time 