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What is the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows?
John Koenig is the creator of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a project to fill in gaps in our language by inventing hundreds of original words to describe human emotions. What is the word for the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own? What about the desire to feel intensely again? Or the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience?
Koenig originally started this project on his website, but he has started posting videos of his definitions on Youtube not too long ago. They are reminiscent of Shots of Awe in that they combine beautiful visuals, music and ideas in order to form thought-provoking videos. There are many videos, all of which I recommend you watch, but here are 3 that I was particularly moved by.
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Sonder: The Realization That Everyone Has A Story
sonder – n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
I mentioned this word in my previous about Common Magic, but that was before I realized that there was actually a video illustrating the concept too. When I watch the monochromatic images flash by, I can’t help but feel how my life is both so significant and insignificant at the same time. I am the main character in my own story, but so is everyone else in their stories. I am just one person in a world in billions, but there is only one me.
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Yù Yī : The Desire to Feel Intensely Again
yù yÄ« – 玉衣
n. the desire to see with fresh eyes, and feel things just as intensely as you did when you were younger—before expectations, before memory, before words.
According to Koenig, the etymology for this word is: “From Mandarin Chinese yù yÄ«, literally “jade suit.” Some Han dynasty royals were made to wear ceremonial burial suits made of jade, stitched together in hundreds of pieces threaded together, like a suit of armor made of jade. Literally, it is to be ‘jaded’ in an attempt to protect yourself.”
Once you watch this video, this is the only first time you’ll ever get. Once you watch this video, it will be forever imprinted on your mind and when you watch it again, it will never be the same. You already know what to expect. Is that sad? Perhaps. I’ve often heard teenagers say they wish they were children again so they could remember what it felt like when each day was simple. Filled with laughter. Eyes glinting with wonder. Pure and innocent.
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Onism: The Awareness of How Little of the World You’ll Experience
onism – n. the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time, which is like standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die-and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here.
You might be familiar with Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken:
| “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, | |
| And sorry I could not travel both | |
| And be one traveler” |
It is a fact of life that when you take one road, that also means that you’ll never know what’s down the other road. Somehow, countless choices have been made in my life that has led to me writing these words right now.  Perhaps if I had taken a right instead of a left or a u-turn instead of going straight, I would’ve been a completely different person than I am now. But, I’ll never be able to know. That is because I am here, which means there are a million other places where I am not.
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 Conclusion
Language, as powerful and expansive of a tool it is, still has instances when it falters. The human experience is so complex that there are times when words simply don’t do it justice. However, I think Koenig is doing an extraordinary job in filling in these holes.
These videos can be a lot to take in. It will take time to let the ideas really sink into your mind. That’s what I love about videos like these though. It forces you to step back for a moment and reexamine your life. It is during this period of introspection that we learn to see the world in a new light and to be one step closer in understanding what it means to be human.
DFTBA! (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!)
Website:Â http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/
Youtube:Â https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDetdM5XDZD1xrQHDPgEg5w
Twitter:Â https://twitter.com/ObscureSorrows
