Hitting the Road
9 June, 2011
Out and about these next few days, taking the Chev to the Western District for a spot of library talking, and bushwalking. (Damn it. I can’t lie – the Chev isn’t mine. Nor is that me in the picture. In fact I’ll be driving the family sedan, complete with dog hairs in the back tray…)
But back to the snap. The elegant automobile belongs to a blog visitor called Marion, who poses a very curly semantic question that perhaps you may be able to unravel. As Marion explains:
I have recently completed the renovation of a 1927 Chevrolet tourer which my late husband started. As I see it sitting in the shed looking magnificent I am stuck for a word to describe how I feel and I thought you may be able to help. There is a sense of pride, achievement, excitement and satisfaction perhaps tinged with a smidgeon of sadness that my husband is not here to see it. No doubt there is a special word to encapsulate all these feelings. Is this a big ask or does a word immediately come to mind…?
Well, yes, it is a big ask, but only because I can’t summon the right bittersweet word. Can you? Perhaps only German is capable of identifying this layered emotion, but that may be selling our own language short. What suggestions can you ‘crank up’? Marion would be most moved to hear.
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