Lazarusphoria

 The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a brilliant book. Author John Koenig takes it upon himself to create words for nuanced experiences and feelings we all can relate to but have never been captured in language. Or rather haven’t captured in the English language. Schadenfreude, for example, well describes in German something we all probably have been guilty of— feeling pleasure in someone else’s misfortunes. Saudade in Portuguese describes a melancholy yearning, a longing that is at once bitter and sweet.  Ubuntu is an African Bantu word that means “I am because we are,” a word wholly unknown and mostly unintelligible to the American fantasy of the independent solitary self beholden to no one. You get the idea.

 

Koenig describes other feelings unnamed in English (or perhaps any language) by combining two known words and making a new one. For example, slipfast describes the longing to disappear into a crowd and become invisible, so you can take in the world without having to take part in it. From “slip” —to fly away in secret and “fast”- fortified against attack. Sonder is the awareness that everyone has a story, borrowed from the French “sonder”—to plumb the depths.

 

So today I would like to add my own word, though it describes an unexpected joy rather than an obscure sorrow: Lazarusphoria— the surprise elation one feels when we discover that someone we care about that we thought had passed away is actually still alive! This happened to me yesterday when an old childhood friend who I had lost touch with for decades resurfaced around 2000 and then seemed to disappear again, unreachable through e-mail or my little Facebook messages. Given our age and knowing he had had some heart trouble, I could only assume he had passed on. And there he was in a Facebook post yesterday, photo and all! Back to the land of the living!

 

I left a little message asking him to contact me and if he does, I’ll tell the longer story another time. As my first black friend who walked me across the tracks of my own town, I think it’s an interesting one. But you have a busy day ahead and so do I, so for now, just want to share my Lazarusphoria that Bill “Lump” Blackshear is alive and well!

PS Maybe can't assume everyone knows the Lazarus story. Check out the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Or Wikipedia.