On Words for Amy

Besides the everyday struggle to understand each others language and intended meanings, humanity fights the effects history has on the recorded definitions of words. Amy’s dilemma concerning her discovery in a thesaurus that the words “stay-at-home” were linked to the definitions of words like, untraveled and stick-in-the-mud, is a perfect example of how elusive definitions can be. Perhaps her thesaurus is “out of date”, if that phrase itself will even “hold water”. When did the phrase “stay-at-home” begin to refer to someone who manages a household and begin to cease referring to someone who could be described as a “stick-in-the-mud”? Or…is it really just a matter of what you read and who you talk too. Age, gender, culture, spirituality and more are all view points from which we look down on words and dissect them differently. I happen to agree with what I think Amy understands “stay-at-home” to be. Someone who is diligent, well rooted and able. I am sure there are people who would say a stay-at-home person is someone unadventurous, lazy and boring (that person has likely never tried to manage a large family). Even if we can’t manage to “pin-down” definitions for the elusive phrases and cliches the world languages have to offer, maybe we CAN begin to agree on the meanings of words that represent fundamentally human concepts like…friendship, love, god, evil, and hope.