One Word

One Word

Noel Laflin

11-12-14

Isn’t it funny how a single word can bring about an entire barrage of emotions?

Furthermore, have you ever noticed how a lone and solitary word can take us places that we have either longed for or forgotten?

I ponder these questions at times - too much of the time I suppose.  But I usually keep these ponderings to myself.

So, no one was more surprised than I was when I found myself cutting and pasting and asking my friends to describe in one word where we met.  Just one word was the key.
 

The memory machine suddenly cranked into high gear.

Places met included elementary school, junior high, high school, work, church, Scouts, Camp Ahwahnee, old neighborhoods, a wedding, a funeral.

Personal connections happened because of relationships or via family members: sister, brother, mother, father, daughter, and significant others.

The first to respond to my post mentioned the fact that we had never actually met in person, but were friends via this social media outlet.  The question hung there: did it count?  Why, most certainly.  Some of the folks I admire most are ones that I have never met. But I like them nonetheless as our friendships have grown via warm key strokes over the span of months and in some cases years now.

The names and places kept rolling in throughout the day and evening.

 

There continue to be dozens and dozens of words scrolling before me at present. They fight for my attention.  As the word connections are recognized, brain cells fire in all directions: I’m five years old again – now ten – now twenty – now thirty, and forty, and fifty, and sixty. I’m in school, at work, at camp, at play, at this key board typing quietly through the night, talking to old and new friends alike.

Word associations grab hold of one another - like strangers at a party - just tipsy enough to be so bold as to start a conga line - and dance across my memory.