The Languages
The two lives I suggested in my last post take on meaning in many different ways as life switches between one and the other. One of the key points of this switch is language, in the way Bernard Shaw once famously said, "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." Many who experience the two lives could relate well to the way the lives are governed by the language that surrounds each life. And that is not just about different languages, but it is the language that I thought I knew, but suddenly I realize, either the language I knew exists no more, or I have completely lost touch with the language, while I was flirting with the two lives. This especially happens when one is caught in two lives and each demand adjusting to two different lives. And at those moments the experience begs the question of authenticity and also perhaps power. Which life is authentic and which takes on privilege? And that moment sometimes happens over mostly banal linguistic m...