Word Search
I spend way too much time thinking about words. Currently I’m obsessed with finding a very specific word or phrase.
There’s a phenomenon that many of us encounter where we grow confident enough in our abilities to feel we are ready for whatever comes, only to find our world collapsing outward as we find our limits. Some of us are lucky enough to have spectacular implosions; ask me sometime about truncating production data tables in the before-AI times for a wild tale.
Using astrophysics, I see this as discovering a new measure of our universe only to watch it expand beyond our scope of understanding. If we’re luckier still, this happens cyclically throughout our lives. We grasp the highest visible rung only to see the ladder stretch into the clouds.
The word or phrase I’m seeking describes the state we are in right before we are tested. It’s not hubris and it’s definitely not mastery, but it has shavings of those words seared into its base. This expression matters because it would give me a shorthand to describe what every few days has felt like over the last 18 months. Like some cynical parody of The Little Engine That Could, my mantra has been “I think I see. I think I see…” The closest I have so far is pre-supersedence or pre-supersedure, but they don’t quite capture the full spectrum. They lack the “vanishing point” ombre that implies visibility of everything except what is beyond the horizon.
More important than the word, however, is the recognition that this has happened and will happen to most of us. For us to survive the next wave, we rely on those around us, especially those with tape backups, to put things right in the short term and point us along the path beyond yesterday’s horizon. Take this as a long-winded thank you to those who’ve reached out over the past few weeks; it’s always reassuring to know we’re not alone in whatever it is that we end up doing. Also, if you know the word or phrase I’m seeking, I’m excited to add it to my collection of random asides to disturb the peace with.