Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Language

Today a teacher asked me, how was my boyfriend?

That is too strange a word for a fifty something to use to describe the person they live with and love. A boyfriend, by definition, should be a boy. Dennis, while immature much of the time, is not a boy.

I often call Dennis my husband. For me, that is exactly what he is, a husband. But, for those that follow the letter of the law, or the letter of the church, he is not really my husband.

Sometimes I use the term, partner, to describe our relationship. These days, however, many people assume I mean a same sex partner when they hear that term.

So, often, I just say that Dennis is my guy.

In the English language, there are so many words that can be used to describe just about anything. I would venture to say there are at least 50 adjectives that could be used to describe the word, "sun", for example. But, in some terms, the language is lacking.

There is no real word that describes our relationship. There is no known word to describe his condition.

Sometimes I feel as if there are too many words in our language. At other times, there simply are not enough words.

Just a simple thought for the day.

Until tommorow,
Ann and Dennis

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Anne..I agree whole heartedly with you here. I remember when we had a discussion on the forum..and I found that a partner is called SO or significant other. I mean..what the H..l??? Our language is rich and yet, we have nothing that really expresses what our love means if we are not married. In Swedish we have a word that means..the one we share our life with. I like this term very much.

Lots of love

Anonymous said...

oops..forgot to sign my name..

humlan/iva