A Friend in West Virginia, Part One
This will be a series of short comments about a friend. I say "series," but I don't have any set plan of how many I will write, and they will likely be interspersed with other, unrelated, articles.
What do you do when a person you like and care about turns on you, irrationally?
To start, for several months I had what was really daily communication with a guy via email. We rarely missed a day where we exchanged at least one or two emails, and most days we exchanged far more; in fact, during those months, we exchanged some 2000 emails, and many pictures of ourselves and things from our lives. I love humor, and he was witty and funny, but he was seemingly a good worker and an animal lover, something dear to my heart. With such extensive communication, even though by email, you begin to "know" a person, and their very temperament shows through their writings.
We all have some "eccentricities," and during much of the time of my communication with him, I noticed some eccentricities in him, but nothing that, at first, seemed too troubling, but then things began to turn, displaying a man with an increasingly troubled mind. Such a situation is not uncommon in people with mental instabilities, as "episodes" can occur for any number of reasons.
More in the next installment ...
WORD HISTORY:
Mind-This word, distantly related to "mental" and to "mean" ('mean' in the sense, "express a thought or intention,' as in, "here is what I mean"), goes back to Indo European "men," with the notion of "to think, to develop an idea or ideas." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "gamuntiz," ^ meaning, "thought of, memory, thought," and this then gave Old English both "mynd" and "gemynd," meaning, "memory, thought, use of mental faculties." These later became "minde" (the "e" pronounced "eh"), before the modern form. The idea of "memory of something," has now shifted to other words later borrowed into English: "memory, remembrance, reminiscence." Some relatives in other Germanic languages include: German has the derived poetic noun, "Minne," which originally meant "memory, thought, but then altered to mean "love," from the idea of this sense/feeling, thought, memory developed in the mind (German once had "gimunt/gemunt," obviously very close to then English "gemynd"), also the verb "mahnen," meaning "to remind," as well as the noun, "Mahnmal," meaning "memorial," Danish "minde," meaning "memory," Icelandic "minni," meaning "memory, remembrance," Swedish "minne," meaning "memory, memento."
^ The "ga" prefix, often later rendered in the Germanic dialects and languages, including English, as "ge," was a common part of Germanic participle formation, which then at times were used as nouns or adjectives, but it was often later dropped, especially so in English. Example: "Like" was once spelled "gelic," and in German it was once "gelich," which later was contracted to just the "g;" thus modern German "gleich," which indeed means "like" (in the sense, 'same, very similar').
What do you do when a person you like and care about turns on you, irrationally?
To start, for several months I had what was really daily communication with a guy via email. We rarely missed a day where we exchanged at least one or two emails, and most days we exchanged far more; in fact, during those months, we exchanged some 2000 emails, and many pictures of ourselves and things from our lives. I love humor, and he was witty and funny, but he was seemingly a good worker and an animal lover, something dear to my heart. With such extensive communication, even though by email, you begin to "know" a person, and their very temperament shows through their writings.
We all have some "eccentricities," and during much of the time of my communication with him, I noticed some eccentricities in him, but nothing that, at first, seemed too troubling, but then things began to turn, displaying a man with an increasingly troubled mind. Such a situation is not uncommon in people with mental instabilities, as "episodes" can occur for any number of reasons.
More in the next installment ...
WORD HISTORY:
Mind-This word, distantly related to "mental" and to "mean" ('mean' in the sense, "express a thought or intention,' as in, "here is what I mean"), goes back to Indo European "men," with the notion of "to think, to develop an idea or ideas." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "gamuntiz," ^ meaning, "thought of, memory, thought," and this then gave Old English both "mynd" and "gemynd," meaning, "memory, thought, use of mental faculties." These later became "minde" (the "e" pronounced "eh"), before the modern form. The idea of "memory of something," has now shifted to other words later borrowed into English: "memory, remembrance, reminiscence." Some relatives in other Germanic languages include: German has the derived poetic noun, "Minne," which originally meant "memory, thought, but then altered to mean "love," from the idea of this sense/feeling, thought, memory developed in the mind (German once had "gimunt/gemunt," obviously very close to then English "gemynd"), also the verb "mahnen," meaning "to remind," as well as the noun, "Mahnmal," meaning "memorial," Danish "minde," meaning "memory," Icelandic "minni," meaning "memory, remembrance," Swedish "minne," meaning "memory, memento."
^ The "ga" prefix, often later rendered in the Germanic dialects and languages, including English, as "ge," was a common part of Germanic participle formation, which then at times were used as nouns or adjectives, but it was often later dropped, especially so in English. Example: "Like" was once spelled "gelic," and in German it was once "gelich," which later was contracted to just the "g;" thus modern German "gleich," which indeed means "like" (in the sense, 'same, very similar').
Labels: English, etymology, fear, friendship, Germanic languages, irrationality, mental illness, paranoia
posted by Randy at 12:28 PM
3 Comments:
Frienddship is a difficult relationship. My Mother taught me that if you have 5 people in your life that you consider you a friend and they demonstrate thatt they reciprocatte that bond you are ve4y fortunate!
That about right Robert & look to me like they were becoming good friends, maybe will work out if the guy gets help
I guess I shouldn't have said that till u finish your story about him
Post a Comment
<< Home