The net is closing in on the verbokleptomaniacs - and examining the use of the word 'growth' is a great example. So subtle and easily missed too, until the skulduggery is revealed step by step as in this posting. Passing off the figurative for the literal, and quietly hoping no-one notices whilst gaining the benefits of association - political/economic 'impression-management" (aka propaganda) being brought to the light for what it is. Excellent stuff.
Thank you! Yes, it is so subtle, because the word 'growth' sounds so 'normal and ordinary'. I could feel it was off, but didn't fully understand the implications until I delved deeper and found some people (like Deniz Utlu and Felix Heidenreich, who had done 'forensic work' to reveal this bullshit.
I'm not sure whether the people using the word and confusing figurative with the literal (politicians, economists, technology/AI enthusiasts etc.) actually notice what they are doing. In the best case scenario it might be 'quietly hoping no-one notices' ... on the other hand, and I believe this to be more likely, it might be spectacular stupidity, not noticing their own error, and believing their own propaganda.
Again Veronica you amaze me with all your word knowledge.
I have learned our bodies grow in 7 year cycles which never end until we end. Every 7 years our bodies make subtle changes. When I was 21 I developed an allergy to cats which I had always had with me. When I was 49 I no longer had a cat allergy. When I was 70 I had a growth they called cancer but I realized it was my body collecting toxins to keep them from spreading. Then the body expelled that growth from me with great efficiency.
We grow in understanding as we age and that growth assist us in helping others grow and understand the reason we’re here. For me, grow is a key component of what our lives are all about.
Thank you Sammy, for reading with such depth of understanding. Isn't it amazing and miraculous what our bodies are capable of? I have witnessed so-called 'cancerous growths' being shed from and by the body like an old skin.
And growing in understanding, isn't that the best?!
I totally agree. Growing is the heartbeat of living. 💗🙏
I can vouch for the seven year change-cycles (sometimes +/- a year) but basically some big life-change happened on the multiples of seven. I'll be 70 in 18 months time so I'm wondering what that will be all about. Though I have to say the thought of being seventy seems a bit surreal. I think of looking at my grandparents when I was a child - and don't see much in common, except a number.
I agree it’s about 7 years give or take a year. I also felt the shock of being 70 but I feel great and I enjoy my 70’s best of any age. It’s amazing how much info we suddenly wake up knowing. Lol
That's encouraging to hear! Josh and I are approaching 70 and had a conversation about it recently how 'weird' it feels to think about it. Part of me feels impressed with myself 'reaching such a ripe old age', almost like 'impostor syndrome' 🤭... I'm looking forward to waking up to new knowledge 😊💕
I call it knowing which is different to me than knowledge. I had some experience or education to gain knowledge but this knowing occurs in my dreams or seemingly from no where but I know it’s true. It’s like knowing your gender, you are absolutely sure with no doubt. You’ll love it and I get more and more intuitive although some people I ask don’t realize they are more intuitive.
absolutely. New knowing. I do know the difference (didn't pay attention typing too fast). Thank you for correcting me there! It is a most important difference indeed... I am in fact writing a chapter about this kind of knowing... having been blessed with some experience of it, I look forward to more.
While I’m no expert in astrology, I’ve found it to be a fascinating correlation how Uranus moves through each sign in 7 year cycles. Its energy is said to be a powerful catalyst for growth, unexpected electric events leading to sudden shocks, upheaval, revelation, and revolution.
I think it's interesting to view one's life as 'being caught up' in the bigger cycles of historical movements - and somehow that makes one's current 'predicaments' more 'acceptable' and easier to deal with. My parents were both 'caught up' in WW2 in their 20s, and I think that experience made them more accepting of life - as well as just want a quiet life after all the horrors - family business lost in the Liverpool blitz, etc.
Hello Veronica. I am delighted that Joshua recommended your Substack to me. He did so after I mentioned that I like the word verboklepsy, which is your creation. I relish being a logophile, and that word is almost an onomatopoeia word, as one reluctantly struggles to twist one’s mouth and tongue to say the “new meaning” of a stolen word.Your part I and 2 of metamorphosis is enticing, not only because of the layering of the etymology of words, but I am appreciating the unfolding of the word ‘growth’. I truly never delved into all the ways it is used. Nor did I realize how using growth for both natural living processes and increased production of goods and services was a false alignment. Metaphors can be useful to explain a new concept, but growth used for non-living processes is totally removing the word from its natural environment entirely. This growth transference has indeed been detrimental to human health and well being.
Discovering your Substack Veronika is akin to the delight I feel when I discover new words that aptly convey depth of meaning , often so illusive in simple words. Your writing is a treasure; I await part 3.
Hello, and welcome to the wild word woods of Symbiopædia! You've come to the right place, where logophiles hang out together, under the shade of stolen words, to catch glimpses of their stories and original identities, to make them light up and come alive again (because everyone wants and needs to be seen and heard and accepted for who they are, not for some fake mask they're wearing, right?)
I just snuck over to Josh's substack, read the conversation you two had there and jumped straight in. And subscribed to your substack, while I'm at it...
Thank you so much for your kind words and resonance! Your reading is a treasure too 💗🙏
"Snuck' over to Josh's substack , did you?I'm glad you did. I appreciate his detailed responses as he raises thoughts to consider. While Josh and you and I arrive at this life point from divergent pathways, clearly we resonate in life perspective. At times, I almost appreciate substack more than books, as it offers immediate opportunity to engage in dialogue with the writer, just as we are doing here. I will be chronologically heading backwards to read your previous posts. I'm looking forward to them, and to our conversations.
I know! That's what I love about substack too. The dialogue with other writers, the opportunity to comment and directly connect as a reader and writer. So many conversations to look forward to, with you! xx
Have you seen the play _BloodKnot_? My guess is NOT. But I write about in upcoming chapter of _Who by Fire_ -- as you might guess, fire is on my mind. Finally out of alert zone. Been a long haul here in LA.
“Coming alive as a core function of life.” This is an enlivening way of looking at growth, which includes then, death as well. Isn’t that wonderful? We rarely look at growth as anything but up and out, but as you’ve explored, its nature also must include in and down.
Exactly! Life and death, regeneration and degeneration. When growth is only increase (and exponential) it either happens at the beginning of a life cycle for a limited time, or it is parasitic growth at the end of the life cycle of a host. (this was quite an eye opener for me...) So it's important to differentiate between 'true growth' and 'metaphorical growth' (which is often only partial and more like the parasitic end of the cycle).
Hi Veronika, I can also relate to the 7 year cycles. My understanding is our growth may be in our eternal cycles of being. Grateful for your words, they are nourishing my inner child’s heart sourced recovery efforts of her adult self, grounding in her human-ness. And she is revelling in her growing body and spirit, the gifts of this earth bound experience and being part of her body, and universal expansion. Thank you 🙏💚😊
Metaphor as per Levinas may be seen as one way to transcend, or, more accurately, expand, the parameter of language to provide a more accurate articulation of experience than "normal" descriptive speech allows. Growth indeed.
I love how Don McKay says “metaphor’s first act is to un-name its subject. We know more; but we also know that we don’t own what we know” (Vis a Vis Pg 69). It is this function which allows metaphor to take part in the act of “naming without claiming” .
I love this quote: “metaphor’s first act is to un-name its subject. We know more; but we also know that we don’t own what we know” ... It is this function which allows metaphor to take part in the act of “naming without claiming”
Is wisdom the child of metaphor?
Great question...
Seeing that metaphor can be used (and especially the word 'growth' is unfortunately rampantly abused as a metaphor by economists, politicians, their financial investors and other megalomaniacs), I might suggest, wisdom could be an offspring of metaphor, depending on whom the metaphor chooses as her bedfellow...
Dear Veronika, I have just read part 1 and 2 of Metamorphosis of Growth, including most of the comments to both outstandingly brilliant and compulsive essays.
I am left feeling shamefully ill equipped intellectually to write anything that might add to your readers both pertinent and interesting observations, but, I cannot leave without, rather shyly, and blushing at my inadequacies, telling you how much I have enjoyed reading and learning, (we are never too old for that at least) from your profound knowledge of words... maybe I have just spent far too long close to nature, the word growth to me, will always be linked therein!
I look forward to part 3 immensely... thank you, so much 💚
Nature is where growth belongs! What you know with your heart and soul... and perceptive gaze through the photographic lens... and your tender way with words, bringing to the page how you experience the natural world... I am attempting to capture here in 'only words', which always feel more or less adequate for the task at most.
My flickering hope, with every wordcast I write, is that my creative daimon won't let me down this time. With much gratitude for your visit to the wild word woods of Symbiopædia 💚🙏 🌱
Your research and your explorative way are very exciting. I have enjoyed everything I have read from you thus far, and I still have much more to explore.
My wife and I married with a maxim: brick by brick. It was stolen from the deconstructionists and applied to our idea of marriage. In addition to the spiritual communion, we see our marriage as a corporate formation, like a business. It is something we willfully build upon, daily.
As we began to read to our first born, an addendum cropped up because of The Three Little Pigs:
Even a brick house is only as strong as we keep it.
This was mostly done for our son's sake.
In 2020, we added:
Not germ theory
Germination theory
You are a growing thing.
This, to my mind, addressed the medical terminology you mentioned concerning hypertrophy, atrophy, et cetera. Most importantly, it addressed the fact that my growth's greatest enemy was in a psychology that insisted my adversary was outside of myself.
As I continue wrap my head around your enemy of language and meaning, I am thoroughly impressed by your ability to flesh out nuance and subtlety.
I like to say, with words we sow space for the fruit of fluency.
Lexicography has softened my stance on the idea that words can be misused or stolen, although I actively believe there is great power to be found in getting into the history of our terminology. When I see a that a term like bear has half a dozen denotations, I don't think the word came that way. It was and has always been an extension of the user: a user who will come to learn that change—like growth—deserves to be appreciated as inevitable.
Thank you so much for your generous feedback, Kameron!
"With words we sow space for the fruit of fluency." ~ what an intriguing thought!
It reminds me of Ortega y Gasset, where he made the point that every language is a different combination of statements and silences.
Yes, words are used by users as extensions of some user's thoughts and mind, and in that vein also abused to manipulate thoughts, minds (and actions) of other users... used as slogans and propaganda, to cast spells or break them. They can come alive in the user's hands, so they may become powerful tools as well as handing us the corresponding responsibilities (~ in the sense of 'ability to respond')
The sheer amount of discipline and attention to detail and nuance required in detangling all the knots that have accumulated around such a simple yet significant word — GROWTH — it boggles my mind.
The funny thing is, it doesn't feel like 'a sheer amount' of anything, when I start meeting a word. More like giving the verbiont some attention and allowing a relationship to unfold. It's like having a conversation with an interesting person I've just met, or someone I knew superficially but now have the opportunity to get to know a little more deeply.
It feels like words are speaking to me, and I'm listening. GROWTH is a special specimen in many ways. The word seemed so ordinary and common at the start, and as we kept 'talking' it revealed its many facets of extra-ordinariness. Quite an unexpected ride we had together. It boggled my mind too 😉
I totally get that, and was actually thinking to myself right in the middle of my comment something like “Veronika is born for this, and all the ‘attention to detail’ and nuance I’m talking about happens organically as a result and the sheer amount of anything isn’t something she’s considering at all.“ 😆
Really like how you describe the living relationship you entered into with GROWTH.
If this was all 'hard work', I can assure you, I wouldn't be able to keep it up week after week...
I just read a note by Jonathan Foster about his 'writing spirit', which reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk on the 'creative genius', and of my own 'creative daimon' (after the ancient Greek concept)... also referred to as 'inspiration'. This is the 'guy I'm hanging out with' when I write. This inner character, once we manage to connect with it, does most of the 'hard work'.
It doesn't mean I'm doing nothing, of course, but as you say, it happens quite organically, almost like in a 'creative trance'.
I imagine you are familiar with this experience, from the way you talk about your writing music...
Words seem to be my music. (and to tell you the truth, I never knew until I hit this stride rather late in life...)
Good question. I would say, expanding is one of the actions we can observe in the process of growing ~ roots expanding into the deep, branches expanding towards new heights. This is not the same as saying 'expansion equals growth'. It's rather that expanding is part of growing (while contracting can be part of growing too).
You do such a wonderful job of leading us down the roads (or branches!) of the word growth! This, however, stuck out for me in particular, "It selectively picks out elements of a word to empower the users and beneficiaries of the metaphor, with disregard of the environment." Because in this day and age of excess-more-and-more and billionaires/companies not satisfied with more money than they could spend in 20 lifetimes, it seems we've become enamored with accumulation rather than learning to live within our means.
Thank you for highlighting this point, Lani. What these guys and the constructs they are nurturing present as 'growth' is in fact parasitic neoplasmic mushrooming.
They appropriate resources from the living environments (including human resources!) which doesn't belong to them, and feed them into dead systems, which they claim as personal property, without consideration for sustainability. This is not a natural living process.
They have no capacity to 'live within any means' because they have lost their connection with life or resources. They appear to be dead inside, driven only by fear, anger, hatred and competitiveness, which seem to have take the place of natural resources in their own hearts and souls. It must be a sad and scary state to be in.
The net is closing in on the verbokleptomaniacs - and examining the use of the word 'growth' is a great example. So subtle and easily missed too, until the skulduggery is revealed step by step as in this posting. Passing off the figurative for the literal, and quietly hoping no-one notices whilst gaining the benefits of association - political/economic 'impression-management" (aka propaganda) being brought to the light for what it is. Excellent stuff.
Thank you! Yes, it is so subtle, because the word 'growth' sounds so 'normal and ordinary'. I could feel it was off, but didn't fully understand the implications until I delved deeper and found some people (like Deniz Utlu and Felix Heidenreich, who had done 'forensic work' to reveal this bullshit.
I'm not sure whether the people using the word and confusing figurative with the literal (politicians, economists, technology/AI enthusiasts etc.) actually notice what they are doing. In the best case scenario it might be 'quietly hoping no-one notices' ... on the other hand, and I believe this to be more likely, it might be spectacular stupidity, not noticing their own error, and believing their own propaganda.
Again Veronica you amaze me with all your word knowledge.
I have learned our bodies grow in 7 year cycles which never end until we end. Every 7 years our bodies make subtle changes. When I was 21 I developed an allergy to cats which I had always had with me. When I was 49 I no longer had a cat allergy. When I was 70 I had a growth they called cancer but I realized it was my body collecting toxins to keep them from spreading. Then the body expelled that growth from me with great efficiency.
We grow in understanding as we age and that growth assist us in helping others grow and understand the reason we’re here. For me, grow is a key component of what our lives are all about.
Thank you again for inspiring me.
Thank you Sammy, for reading with such depth of understanding. Isn't it amazing and miraculous what our bodies are capable of? I have witnessed so-called 'cancerous growths' being shed from and by the body like an old skin.
And growing in understanding, isn't that the best?!
I totally agree. Growing is the heartbeat of living. 💗🙏
I can vouch for the seven year change-cycles (sometimes +/- a year) but basically some big life-change happened on the multiples of seven. I'll be 70 in 18 months time so I'm wondering what that will be all about. Though I have to say the thought of being seventy seems a bit surreal. I think of looking at my grandparents when I was a child - and don't see much in common, except a number.
I agree it’s about 7 years give or take a year. I also felt the shock of being 70 but I feel great and I enjoy my 70’s best of any age. It’s amazing how much info we suddenly wake up knowing. Lol
That's encouraging to hear! Josh and I are approaching 70 and had a conversation about it recently how 'weird' it feels to think about it. Part of me feels impressed with myself 'reaching such a ripe old age', almost like 'impostor syndrome' 🤭... I'm looking forward to waking up to new knowledge 😊💕
I call it knowing which is different to me than knowledge. I had some experience or education to gain knowledge but this knowing occurs in my dreams or seemingly from no where but I know it’s true. It’s like knowing your gender, you are absolutely sure with no doubt. You’ll love it and I get more and more intuitive although some people I ask don’t realize they are more intuitive.
absolutely. New knowing. I do know the difference (didn't pay attention typing too fast). Thank you for correcting me there! It is a most important difference indeed... I am in fact writing a chapter about this kind of knowing... having been blessed with some experience of it, I look forward to more.
What is the book please?
While I’m no expert in astrology, I’ve found it to be a fascinating correlation how Uranus moves through each sign in 7 year cycles. Its energy is said to be a powerful catalyst for growth, unexpected electric events leading to sudden shocks, upheaval, revelation, and revolution.
I think it's interesting to view one's life as 'being caught up' in the bigger cycles of historical movements - and somehow that makes one's current 'predicaments' more 'acceptable' and easier to deal with. My parents were both 'caught up' in WW2 in their 20s, and I think that experience made them more accepting of life - as well as just want a quiet life after all the horrors - family business lost in the Liverpool blitz, etc.
Hello Veronica. I am delighted that Joshua recommended your Substack to me. He did so after I mentioned that I like the word verboklepsy, which is your creation. I relish being a logophile, and that word is almost an onomatopoeia word, as one reluctantly struggles to twist one’s mouth and tongue to say the “new meaning” of a stolen word.Your part I and 2 of metamorphosis is enticing, not only because of the layering of the etymology of words, but I am appreciating the unfolding of the word ‘growth’. I truly never delved into all the ways it is used. Nor did I realize how using growth for both natural living processes and increased production of goods and services was a false alignment. Metaphors can be useful to explain a new concept, but growth used for non-living processes is totally removing the word from its natural environment entirely. This growth transference has indeed been detrimental to human health and well being.
Discovering your Substack Veronika is akin to the delight I feel when I discover new words that aptly convey depth of meaning , often so illusive in simple words. Your writing is a treasure; I await part 3.
Hello, and welcome to the wild word woods of Symbiopædia! You've come to the right place, where logophiles hang out together, under the shade of stolen words, to catch glimpses of their stories and original identities, to make them light up and come alive again (because everyone wants and needs to be seen and heard and accepted for who they are, not for some fake mask they're wearing, right?)
I just snuck over to Josh's substack, read the conversation you two had there and jumped straight in. And subscribed to your substack, while I'm at it...
Thank you so much for your kind words and resonance! Your reading is a treasure too 💗🙏
"Snuck' over to Josh's substack , did you?I'm glad you did. I appreciate his detailed responses as he raises thoughts to consider. While Josh and you and I arrive at this life point from divergent pathways, clearly we resonate in life perspective. At times, I almost appreciate substack more than books, as it offers immediate opportunity to engage in dialogue with the writer, just as we are doing here. I will be chronologically heading backwards to read your previous posts. I'm looking forward to them, and to our conversations.
I know! That's what I love about substack too. The dialogue with other writers, the opportunity to comment and directly connect as a reader and writer. So many conversations to look forward to, with you! xx
Grand as always.
Have you seen the play _BloodKnot_? My guess is NOT. But I write about in upcoming chapter of _Who by Fire_ -- as you might guess, fire is on my mind. Finally out of alert zone. Been a long haul here in LA.
Thank you so, dear Mary! No I haven't heard of 'BloodKnot'...
Now I'm curious...
Oh yes, I do know fire... what a relief that it's calmed down, but the aftermath will rumble on for some time... much love to you and LA xx
“Coming alive as a core function of life.” This is an enlivening way of looking at growth, which includes then, death as well. Isn’t that wonderful? We rarely look at growth as anything but up and out, but as you’ve explored, its nature also must include in and down.
Exactly! Life and death, regeneration and degeneration. When growth is only increase (and exponential) it either happens at the beginning of a life cycle for a limited time, or it is parasitic growth at the end of the life cycle of a host. (this was quite an eye opener for me...) So it's important to differentiate between 'true growth' and 'metaphorical growth' (which is often only partial and more like the parasitic end of the cycle).
This is so exciting. I love how you light little fires in me!
🔥🙏 💕
Hi Veronika, I can also relate to the 7 year cycles. My understanding is our growth may be in our eternal cycles of being. Grateful for your words, they are nourishing my inner child’s heart sourced recovery efforts of her adult self, grounding in her human-ness. And she is revelling in her growing body and spirit, the gifts of this earth bound experience and being part of her body, and universal expansion. Thank you 🙏💚😊
You're welcome, Simone. I am so grateful for your words and resonance, always 💚🙏 🌱
Metaphors, Nature, Nurture.
Meta pherein - to carry across
Metaphor as per Levinas may be seen as one way to transcend, or, more accurately, expand, the parameter of language to provide a more accurate articulation of experience than "normal" descriptive speech allows. Growth indeed.
I love how Don McKay says “metaphor’s first act is to un-name its subject. We know more; but we also know that we don’t own what we know” (Vis a Vis Pg 69). It is this function which allows metaphor to take part in the act of “naming without claiming” .
Is Wisdom the child of metaphor?
Yes to growth! I love your writing!
Thank you so much, Jamie!! 💗🙏
I love this quote: “metaphor’s first act is to un-name its subject. We know more; but we also know that we don’t own what we know” ... It is this function which allows metaphor to take part in the act of “naming without claiming”
Is wisdom the child of metaphor?
Great question...
Seeing that metaphor can be used (and especially the word 'growth' is unfortunately rampantly abused as a metaphor by economists, politicians, their financial investors and other megalomaniacs), I might suggest, wisdom could be an offspring of metaphor, depending on whom the metaphor chooses as her bedfellow...
Thank you, Veronika.
Dear Veronika, I have just read part 1 and 2 of Metamorphosis of Growth, including most of the comments to both outstandingly brilliant and compulsive essays.
I am left feeling shamefully ill equipped intellectually to write anything that might add to your readers both pertinent and interesting observations, but, I cannot leave without, rather shyly, and blushing at my inadequacies, telling you how much I have enjoyed reading and learning, (we are never too old for that at least) from your profound knowledge of words... maybe I have just spent far too long close to nature, the word growth to me, will always be linked therein!
I look forward to part 3 immensely... thank you, so much 💚
Oh Susie, your comment brings tears to my eyes...
Nature is where growth belongs! What you know with your heart and soul... and perceptive gaze through the photographic lens... and your tender way with words, bringing to the page how you experience the natural world... I am attempting to capture here in 'only words', which always feel more or less adequate for the task at most.
My flickering hope, with every wordcast I write, is that my creative daimon won't let me down this time. With much gratitude for your visit to the wild word woods of Symbiopædia 💚🙏 🌱
Bless you for such kind words Veronika, it was a pleasure to finally take the time to spend wandering your wild word woods. 💚
I just nipped over to your website, I am truly in awe... 🌿
Thank you so much! Your visits are a true honour 💚🙏
As are yours Veronika 🕊x
Your research and your explorative way are very exciting. I have enjoyed everything I have read from you thus far, and I still have much more to explore.
My wife and I married with a maxim: brick by brick. It was stolen from the deconstructionists and applied to our idea of marriage. In addition to the spiritual communion, we see our marriage as a corporate formation, like a business. It is something we willfully build upon, daily.
As we began to read to our first born, an addendum cropped up because of The Three Little Pigs:
Even a brick house is only as strong as we keep it.
This was mostly done for our son's sake.
In 2020, we added:
Not germ theory
Germination theory
You are a growing thing.
This, to my mind, addressed the medical terminology you mentioned concerning hypertrophy, atrophy, et cetera. Most importantly, it addressed the fact that my growth's greatest enemy was in a psychology that insisted my adversary was outside of myself.
As I continue wrap my head around your enemy of language and meaning, I am thoroughly impressed by your ability to flesh out nuance and subtlety.
I like to say, with words we sow space for the fruit of fluency.
Lexicography has softened my stance on the idea that words can be misused or stolen, although I actively believe there is great power to be found in getting into the history of our terminology. When I see a that a term like bear has half a dozen denotations, I don't think the word came that way. It was and has always been an extension of the user: a user who will come to learn that change—like growth—deserves to be appreciated as inevitable.
Thank you for your important work.
Thank you so much for your generous feedback, Kameron!
"With words we sow space for the fruit of fluency." ~ what an intriguing thought!
It reminds me of Ortega y Gasset, where he made the point that every language is a different combination of statements and silences.
Yes, words are used by users as extensions of some user's thoughts and mind, and in that vein also abused to manipulate thoughts, minds (and actions) of other users... used as slogans and propaganda, to cast spells or break them. They can come alive in the user's hands, so they may become powerful tools as well as handing us the corresponding responsibilities (~ in the sense of 'ability to respond')
The sheer amount of discipline and attention to detail and nuance required in detangling all the knots that have accumulated around such a simple yet significant word — GROWTH — it boggles my mind.
The funny thing is, it doesn't feel like 'a sheer amount' of anything, when I start meeting a word. More like giving the verbiont some attention and allowing a relationship to unfold. It's like having a conversation with an interesting person I've just met, or someone I knew superficially but now have the opportunity to get to know a little more deeply.
It feels like words are speaking to me, and I'm listening. GROWTH is a special specimen in many ways. The word seemed so ordinary and common at the start, and as we kept 'talking' it revealed its many facets of extra-ordinariness. Quite an unexpected ride we had together. It boggled my mind too 😉
I totally get that, and was actually thinking to myself right in the middle of my comment something like “Veronika is born for this, and all the ‘attention to detail’ and nuance I’m talking about happens organically as a result and the sheer amount of anything isn’t something she’s considering at all.“ 😆
Really like how you describe the living relationship you entered into with GROWTH.
That's right! Your intuition has spoken 😉
If this was all 'hard work', I can assure you, I wouldn't be able to keep it up week after week...
I just read a note by Jonathan Foster about his 'writing spirit', which reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk on the 'creative genius', and of my own 'creative daimon' (after the ancient Greek concept)... also referred to as 'inspiration'. This is the 'guy I'm hanging out with' when I write. This inner character, once we manage to connect with it, does most of the 'hard work'.
It doesn't mean I'm doing nothing, of course, but as you say, it happens quite organically, almost like in a 'creative trance'.
I imagine you are familiar with this experience, from the way you talk about your writing music...
Words seem to be my music. (and to tell you the truth, I never knew until I hit this stride rather late in life...)
We have deep strong roots
and firm, far-reaching branches.
Is expansion growth?
Good question. I would say, expanding is one of the actions we can observe in the process of growing ~ roots expanding into the deep, branches expanding towards new heights. This is not the same as saying 'expansion equals growth'. It's rather that expanding is part of growing (while contracting can be part of growing too).
Contraction counts too.
Conservation can cause growth.
Creative caring.
... and I think 'pruning' is part of stimulating growth in the right way. Otherwise pruning is just amputation.
Pruning may prime growth,
promote, foster flora’s force.
When by skilled, kind hands.
I will definitely have to read this. Thank you for putting your wisdom out for us Veronica .
Oh, you're most welcome Sammie. I'm curious to hear your feedback 😊
and thank you in advance for your interest in my work!! 💗🙏 This is food for the writer's soul.
Your work is food for the readers soul.
🙏 🍎 ♥️ 🍓
Many thanks for the restack, Tim 💚🙏 🌱
Thank you Geraldine 💚🙏 🌱
You do such a wonderful job of leading us down the roads (or branches!) of the word growth! This, however, stuck out for me in particular, "It selectively picks out elements of a word to empower the users and beneficiaries of the metaphor, with disregard of the environment." Because in this day and age of excess-more-and-more and billionaires/companies not satisfied with more money than they could spend in 20 lifetimes, it seems we've become enamored with accumulation rather than learning to live within our means.
Thank you for highlighting this point, Lani. What these guys and the constructs they are nurturing present as 'growth' is in fact parasitic neoplasmic mushrooming.
They appropriate resources from the living environments (including human resources!) which doesn't belong to them, and feed them into dead systems, which they claim as personal property, without consideration for sustainability. This is not a natural living process.
They have no capacity to 'live within any means' because they have lost their connection with life or resources. They appear to be dead inside, driven only by fear, anger, hatred and competitiveness, which seem to have take the place of natural resources in their own hearts and souls. It must be a sad and scary state to be in.
... more like 200 lifetimes... that's how extreme it is
Agreed.