Tuesday, September 16, 2008

My Favorite Word

One night, after I had gotten off work at the CCRA where I was employed on the afternoon shift, my friend and I decided to have a few drinks. We, the afternoon shift, were in the habit of going for drinks or something social after work since we all got off at 11pm when the night was still young (as were we).

We stopped by a co-workers house and had a few drinks and jam sessions downstairs and gossiped about office romances and who was the fattest on our floor and commenced about the usual talk that co-workers who become friends immerse themselves in.

Around 1:30am my friend and I left our co-workers house and were in a bit of a quandary. It was too late to hit the bars as they closed at 2am and it was too late to buy more alcohol as all the beer and wine stores were closed, so what were we to do? Neither of us felt like going home and since we enjoyed each other’s company so much, we decided to sit in the car and continue the meandering path of our conversation.

At 2:30am we were still sitting in the car talking when I suddenly blurted out “Do you know what my favorite word is? Recognize.” “And why is that?” he asked. “Well,” I replied, “recognize is so much more than just remembering someone or something. It’s more than just a ‘hey, I know you from somewhere’. To me, recognize is like a process that repeats itself in your very conscious. The word ‘recognize’ itself is made up of a prefix ‘re’ and a derivative of the word ‘cognizant’. I can just imagine my brain, neurons and synapses firing, assessing the features of a persons face and matching them up against every entry in the database that is my brain. Recognize, to me, is probably one of my favorite words. The very word itself hides its meaning right in it! There is no need for a description.” “How interesting.” He said, ‘Do you know what my favorite word is?” “No, what is it?” “Bludgeon.” “Why?” “No reason, I just like the way it sounds.”

I’ve since stopped sharing what my favorite word is.

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