Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A 7-Word Game



I decided to write out this train of thought because it sort of came rushing at me in the last twenty minutes and I wanted to follow it through.

It began with me thinking about someone who left a comment on a website: what a loser.

Then I thought to myself, What do I mean by that? What's a loser? What makes that person, by your definition, a loser? What is your definition of a "loser?"

Pretty soon this led to these questions:

If you wanted to convey some idea of "who you are" to others by choosing words to define and then providing the definitions, which words would you choose, and what would your definitions be?

Would you choose the same words for other people to define (in order to get a better idea of them)?

I decided to do my own exercise and jot down some word definitions here just to see if I would learn something about myself. If you feel like trying this and sharing your results, I'd love to hear about it - drop me a line (or a comment)!


MY WORD LIST

FRIEND - a person you can trust with your truest self, whose company you cherish, and with whom you share a reciprocal commitment to regard the details of each other's lives as things that matter

JERK - someone who has suppressed or obliterated his or her capacity for respect

LOSER - someone with no interest in learning

MATURITY - freedom from needy-ness, from thinking that everything's "about" oneself, and probably also from highly reactive anger

FAITH - an individual's way of understanding, viewing, and responding to the world and to experience

LOVE - a deliberate, steadfast, and solidarity-driven pouring of energy into recognizing, upholding, protecting, or restoring another's dignity, well-being, and/or worth

SUCCESS - peace with oneself

Whew. I don't know why I got all philosophical tonight but I had to get it out.

4 comments:

Hinzi said...

Wow; I didn't even know that someone had to to do it, but you did it.


I think your definition of Love is worth a Pulitzer...

katekindle said...

I came to your blog today to get a recipe for (H)'Umble Pie from your June 2008 blog for a romance writers' Halloween blog celebration. Got caught up in the good communication and thoughts and want to leave a note of thanks. You also sound like quite a good doctor-I hope should I have an operation.

Chriso said...

I do agree with your definitions, particularly LOVE and FRIEND.

I would like to hear your take on HUMOUR and FREEDOM

T. said...

Thanks, everyone!

Chriso -what's YOUR take? Would love to know! I was thinking about FREEDOM as the ability to make choices without fear, but for HUMOUR I had trouble...maybe, that which makes us laugh because we are able to identify with it in some way? I'll have to think more about that one...