As readers of Ancora Imparo may know, I am fascinated with words. How foreigners ever learn our language is beyond me. Well, actually......it is not beyond me. I have spoken, over the phone, with plenty of customer service representatives whose origins are elsewhere, that have no clue on how to speak our language.
I'll begin with words that sound the same (heel and heal) but are spelled differently and have different meanings. These two words have been at the forefront of my internal thesaurus as of late because we have way too many good friends who need prayers for healing and I have a tendon in a heel that desperately needs healing. However, a little heel pain is nothing compared to what others are battling in terms of bodies that are fighting health battles. Although my heel speaks to me constantly, sometimes screaming and other times whispering, wearing tape on my arch and massaging my foot with a golf ball twice a day is nothing when compared to constant trips to the hospital and experimental chemotherapy drugs, which when administered, require the nurses to wear full protective gear.
Then there is the matter of words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and are pronounced differently. Let's take herb and Herb. One is a plant sometimes grown in a garden and the other may be your next door neighbor or a former president. "Why", I ask myself not infrequently, "do we leave off the "h" sound when talking about thyme and marjoram (among others), but we pronounce the "h" when we talk about the guy down at the car wash?" Why was was it not "Erbert Oover" or why do we cook with "h"erbs and spices?
As you can see, my mind is all over the place today.
I'd also like to know why female beach volleyball players are required to wear bikinis? It is no wonder it is such a popular spectator sport.
I'd also like to know how gymnasts can perform such great leaps, jumps, and "sticks" while needing to have a foot or ankle taped up.
And so, you have the complete list of thoughts from my brain today. Be thankful there was nothing else of little import to write about.
Ancora imparo
