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 moments.  For example, when did the word “upright” in English become a verb? That use would be inauthentic and unacceptable in one life because in another life it is a noun. How else would one reconcile with the instruction from the airline person saying “upright your seat” prior to landing. There is certainly a degree of amusement in this statement and being smug about what in one life would be considered the correct part of speech the word belongs to. But there is a sense of brevity and creative transmutation of the word to a verb even though there is a certain jarring aspect to see the word used in that manner. I am frequently bemused by these moments of language where the only way is to understand what is being said within context and do an activity if that is being requested in that life. The amusement can transform to annoyance because I am implicitly considering one life, and the related language, to be more authentic and powerful. Perhaps these are concerns that only matter to a small segment of people, but through these - for the dual livers - it is possible to imagine the complexity of these lives when they come face to face. It is these stark moments of contrast that sometimes make it impossible to consider ways of making the two lives merge. Because the difference and the divide are too vast and perhaps too irreconcilable. And in the age we live in it is foolish to expect that the two lives will not face each other. And language becomes a metaphor to imagine, and perhaps manage, the cataclysm of misunderstanding and delirious emotions that follow the face-to-face encounter of the two lives. The issue of living two lives perhaps only matters to the tiny number of people who have chosen to live two lives, but that continuously calls into question which life, if any, must be privileged even at the level of language and thereafter at many other levels. Anyone who lives the dual life is constantly asked this question. People often ask me which do you like better, of the two lives. And if language is one of the criteria, then I must judge and evaluate and pass a value assignment to make the comparison. But as a friend has often reminded me, not to compare, here too, to even ask the question which language I prefer, is to invite the comparison. And therein lies the rub - the challenge one cannot hope to live the dual life if one were to compare and decide that it is OK to use “upright” as a verb and restricting the word to being a noun alone seems wrong. While that may seem like a banal statement the experience of a dual life requires a suspension of judgment. Requires an acceptance of the bizarre and the continuous search for something new, something else that makes the dual life a linguistic adventure. This adventure stretches from getting on an aircraft “from" a gate to not having to pondering the correct response to the question, “Wassup?” Sometimes dual lives get lost in translation and one continuously negotiates these minor things in life when life is dynamic and not entrenched into statis. And perhaps one should return to Shaw and how Rex Harrison famously said, "I ask you sir what kind of word is that?" in the song from My Fair Lady.