A Mind Travel Packing List, Part 1

You’ve heard or seen the analogy, I’m sure. Rascal Flatts scored a big hit with one take on it: “Life Is a Highway.” It’s there in three of Robert Frost’s best-known poems: “The Road Not Taken,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and “Acquainted with the Night.” Even people who are not singers or poets often refer to “life’s journey.”

With all of these people singing, writing, and talking ab out figurative travels, you would think someone would tell you what to pack!

I’m here to fill that gap. Over my nearly 60 years on this planet (hard to believe), I have enjoyed more than my share of mind travels, and I’m happy to share some thoughts about what and whom to bring along in your own journeys.

I will start this week with—what else?—some useful words to stuff in your haversack.

Don’t Leave Home Without Them

You may have never thought of them this way, but words are the most useful things you can take with you anywhere. Mere sounds formed in the mouth or squiggly lines on a page (or a screen or a sign or even the sky when written in the form of contrails), words can do more than any hammer or ax or aircraft carrier. Just consider how many of them you hear and see every day—on social media, on television and radio, in conversations, and just about anywhere you look in a city or town. Words are the main tools we use to describe, narrate, persuade, and inspire. Yes, some pictures may be worth a thousand words, but many words, including love and sacrifice, are worth a thousand pictures, and words, when chosen and arranged strategically, can do more good than anything else in the world.

In last week’s column, “Making the Case for Independence,” we explored one shining example of words chosen and arranged for potent effect. This week, I will focus on some individual words to pack for your mind travels.

Wonder: “a cause of astonishment or admiration : MARVEL”; “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience” (“Middle English, from Old English wundor; akin to Old High German wuntar”) -Merriam-Webster

I could write an entire column about this word. Wait, I already did! The word wonder and variations of it (wondrous, wonderful) pervade literature in English, from Caedmon’s Hymn and Beowulf through Shakespeare’s plays and beyond. Why? Well, when you consider the word’s various meanings, there is, to quote a line from Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “The Windhover,” “no wonder of it.” A native English word going back to Germanic, wonder may refer to things beyond our understanding, as well as our emotional responses to such things. It’s the perfect word to take on our mind travels because we will need it to describe both the ineffable things we will encounter in poetry, music, paintings, and other forms of art, as well as the transcendent feelings they inspire.

Constructive: “of or relating to construction or creation”; “promoting improvement or development” (etymology of construct: “Latin constructus, past participle of construere, from com- + struere to build”) -Merriam-Webster

Unlike some of my other favorite words, this one does not have a lot of panache. It’s not a reduplicative. Unlike eponyms, it did not evolve from the name of a person or a place. It doesn’t even come with some dazzling or amusing sound effects. Its meaning, however, is invaluable. In fact, I would offer it as a kind of test for various kinds of language and behavior. Think about the things that family members or co-workers say or do to one another. What’s the difference between “That’s a terrible idea!” and “Let’s play this out” or between sabotaging people’s work and doing them a favor? In each case, the second option is more constructive than the first. Literally, it’s more likely to build a better relationship, a better person, or a better future. The next time you are facing a difficult situation and considering your options, ask yourself which would be more likely to be described as “constructive.”

drifter: “one that drifts“; “especially : one that travels or moves about aimlessly” (etymology for drift: “Middle English; akin to Old English drīfan to drive” -Merriam-Webster

In the car the other day, my wife and I passed something that looked like a “cinder-block buildin’ with a hand-painted sign,” and we were reminded of one of our favorite country songs by the great John Anderson. In this song, called “Let My Guitar Do the Talkin’,” Anderson sings about a roadhouse filled with “truckers, bikers, drifters, and locals from the sticks.” The repetition (-er, -er, -er), alliteration of c/ck sounds, and the elongation of the final element in the series (“locals from the sticks”) combine to make a delightful piece of language, especially when crooned with Anderson’s inimitable delivery. The words not only sound great together, but also paint a perfect picture of the motley crowd. Now, I would enjoy hanging out with any of these folks—I love meeting people and listening to their stories—but, for our purposes, I’m particularly interested in the drifters. Alas, we don’t hear that term much anymore, but it’s an evocative one for the kind of person who doesn’t settle down; as the literal meaning of the word suggests, they continue to move, not with much agency, but rather in a desultory fashion, allowing themselves to be carried along, as with a river or ocean current. While I would not recommend living this way to my students or my children, there’s something to be said for traveling this way. Whether you are taking a road trip across the American West (a splendid idea) or letting your mind travel through books and museums, consider becoming a drifter. See where the words and images and sounds take you—probably to unexpected, yet stimulating, even life-changing places.

dig: “UNDERSTAND, APPRECIATE” (“Middle English diggen”) -Merriam-Webster

If this word doesn’t seem all that special to you, then you haven’t heard Jimi Hendrix say it. Hendrix, for the uninitiated, was the greatest guitarist and the coolest dude in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. (I like to think that Keith Richards, who is near the top on both counts, would agree.) Before there was Joe Cool (thanks to Charles Schulz and Snoopy), there was Jimi Cool, who masterfully and seemingly effortlessly combined earnestness and insouciance in both his music and his manner. Listen to the devil-may-care intro he gives to his virtuoso rendition of a Chuck Berry classic.

Is it too loud out there? Is it too loud? . . . Dig ya’ll. We got this other thing called, I don’t know, we’d like to do a little loose jam type of thing, Johnnie B. Goode, what the h***.

About a half-second later, Hendrix tears into one of the most dazzling performances I have heard in my nearly five decades of listening to rock ‘n’ roll (second only to his epic performance of “Red House”). Let’s get back to the word we started with, though: dig. Some of you are probably old enough to remember when this word was slang for, roughly, understand. Actually, it carries some additional nuance, as we might be able to infer from Hendrix’s interaction with his fans here. When he asks them if the sound in the concert is “too loud,” fans shout, “No! No!” (Of course, they do. I’ve attended my share of concerts, and I don’t recall ever hearing, “Turn it down!”—even when I was surrounded by fellow 50- (and 60- and 70-) somethings at a Stones or Pretenders concert.) When Jimi says, “Dig ya’ll,” he’s really saying, “I’m with you. I get you”—or, as today’s young slang speakers might say, “I feel you.” It’s more than a cool expression from a cool guy, though. It’s a wonderful sentiment that I wish all of us could carry with us wherever we go. Instead of bickering and insulting and hating and dividing, we could just say, “Dig ya’ll” and, to quote another rock star, “Let It Be.”

I could fill more columns with reflections on words—and, let’s face it, I probably will. You’ve heard the expression “a kid in a candy store”? Well, you can replace it with “Mark with a dictionary.” If a dictionary were a museum, you would find me puttering around for days and weeks and months, pausing to admire the splendor of byzantine, enjoying a little chuckle at draffsack and horseplay, and, of course, whiling away the hours in the reduplicatives wing.

This time, however, I wanted to focus on words that, because of their meanings, will serve us well on our mind travels.

With this part of your packing list, we are set to take in some wonders—and, if you bump into any drifters—or, for that matter, truckers, bikers, or locals from the sticks—we know to remain constructive, not picking any fights, but rather just saying—repeat after Jimi—“Dig ya’ll.”