Dictionary of obscure sorrows doodled.

It was a few years back when i discovered a ted talk by John Koenig who compiles a dictionary of new words for the age we live in. New words he makes up to describe a range of obscure feelings and emotions that we human beings feel and experience as we live life.

While some like ‘Koinophobia’ capture the fear that one may have lived an ordinary life, others like ‘Wytai’ talk about a feature of modern society that seems absurd like zoos, or milk drinking, or organ transplants. ‘Morii’ is the desire to capture a fleeing experience, something we try to do incessantly every waking minute of our lives these days with Instagram stories, photographs, and snaps.

But what caught my eye today as i was going through these doodles scribbled from a few years ago is the word – ‘Lacheism‘. John describes Lacheism as a longing for the clarity of disaster or apocalypse. It is true that a foreboding sense of doom rightly puts focus back on things that really matter. Honestly, a vivid sense of clarity emerges. Quality time with family, sharing tasks with the community, being able to help those in need, and truly living in the moment; all these truths strike in high resolution technicolor; for who knows what might happen tomorrow.

For those of us who unknowingly wished for the world to end and with it the sorrow of ‘astrophe’, the feeling of being stuck on earth when there is an entire universe or beyond to explore. While it may not have been aliens, asteroids or climate change, a small virus 🦠could probably put us out of our misery. But who knows? If we are lucky, we may still have man more years ahead of us, of being stuck wallowing in our obscure sorrows.

Hope you shudder at the ironic timing as much as i did discovering these Post-it notes in my album folders.