I’ve been busy thinking.
I thought I was thinking about my Zoom chat which is tomorrow night and I was trying to assemble a recognizable path amid a collection of random signposts. Once in a while and some times too often, I have a segmented sleep pattern, usually between 2-5 a.m., shorter but no longer, and only when I have a lot on my mind. Some times it’s worth while. This past week it was, to me, though it turned out to be no help for my pending Zoom. But I had taken the time to track my path and pay attention to the signposts. Stay with me.
I have a habit of illustrating my discussions with examples to clarify my argument, not pictures. I don’t draw and I don’t take photographs. I use words—anecdotes and little stories, fables, if you will. I have called them parables and I decided I am a parabolic thinker because I like to play with words. My recent thinking finally sent me to the dictionary to see where I was going, have been. I looked up parabolic.
pa·rab·o·la noun (plural parabolas or parabolae - a symmetrical open plane curve formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to its side. The path of a projectile under the influence of gravity ideally follows a curve of this shape. ORIGIN late 16th century: modern Latin, from Greek parabolē ‘placing side by side, application’, from para- ‘beside’ + bolē ‘a throw’ (from the verb ballein).
THAT is from the online dictionary, not much help, but there’s a recent one: also on line. I Googled it.
parabolic adjective 1. of or like a parabola or part of one. "a parabolic mirror behind a spotlight projects a parallel beam"
2. of or expressed in parables “parabolic teaching"
SO, I was not alone in my use of the adjective, just more up-to-date.
Now, I’m going to leap to another playful use, without any precedent (to my knowledge) but my own. HERE it is.
You may have noticed I also use analogies to clarify or give examples.
analogy noun (plural analogies) a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification: an analogy between the workings of nature and those of human societies | he interprets logical functions by analogy with machines. • a correspondence or partial similarity: the syndrome is called deep dysgraphia because of its analogy to deep dyslexia. • a thing which is comparable to something else in significant respects: works of art were seen as an analogy for works of nature. • Logic a process of arguing from similarity in known respects to similarity in other respects: argument from analogy. • Linguistics a process by which new words and inflections are created on the basis of regularities in the form of existing ones. • Biology the resemblance of function between organs that have a different evolutionary origin. DERIVATIVES analogic adjective analogical adjective analogically adverb ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense ‘appropriateness, correspondence’): from French analogie, Latin analogia ‘proportion’, from Greek, from analogos ‘proportionate’.
Sorry that’s so long, but it describes what I’ve been doing. My adjectival leap, however, is not logical, it’s just word play. I call myself an analgesic thinker.
analgesic Medicine adjective (of a drug) acting to relieve pain. noun “an analgesic drug”—(not strictly accurate but words are a drug to me!)
See, at 4 in the morning, I thought this was pretty profound, and it is, for me. At least, I liked it. You don’t have to. But hey, that’s my blog for today.
You are free to go.
You aleady did!!