Year of the Boar
Government Officials Mistakes
Meaning of Names
Sweet Suites
Right and Left
Proofreader
Kansas
Scotch

Year of the Boar
07/01/01

In a recent conversation, a lady told me about a man with “a lot of payshuns.” I wondered if the man was a doctor and asked her how to spell that word. Many words in the English language are pronounced the same, but have different spellings and meanings. In this case, she was speaking of “patience” rather than “patients.” This incident came to mind as I prepared this message regarding the “Year of the Boar.” In Oriental tradition, every year is related to one of the twelve zodiac signs and the New Year of 2007 (according to the Gregorian calendar) is the “Year of the Boar.” The word “boar,” spelled b-o-a-r, signifies “an uncastrated male pig” or “a wild hog,” and the ravaging, destructive nature of boars is noted in Psalm 80:13, the only Bible passage in which boars are mentioned. But there are other words with the same pronunciation that are spelled b-o-r-e. As a verb, “bore” may mean “to make a hole” through something and a drilling tool may be called a “bore.” Another meaning of “bore” is “to make weary with dullness, repetition or tediousness,” and a person “that arouses boredom” may be called a “bore.” Also, a “high wave caused by a flood tide upstream” is another kind of “bore.” People in the Occident, unacquainted with the zodiac signs, who have only heard, but not read that this is the “Year of the Bor,” may have different imaginations or illusions regarding the kind of year it may be. Let us try to avoid both the destructive inclination of a boar and the dull repetitions of a bore. Rather, let us seek to become the kind of bore that can bore a tunnel through the darkness of world problems and to become a bore on the top of a new wave of goodness and love, supporting peace and justice for those in need throughout the world, to help make the New Year a meaningful “Year of the Bor.” (1026)

Government Officials Mistakes
07/01/05

It is widely recognized these days that governments and government officials and agencies sometimes make mistakes. Today’s message includes two examples from the personal experiences of me and my wife. When I applied to a government agency for enrollment in the Social Security program years ago, I stated the date of my birth: December 16, 1927. After a short pause, I was informed that, according to the data on the computer, my birthday was December 11. Although my entry into the program was approved, I was told that I now had two birthdays and that in my dealings with Social Security, my birthday was December 11. On all documents both before and after that surprising event, I have consistently entered December 16 as my birthday, except on matters related to Social Security. If I forget to do so, I am informed that my birth date is incorrect. It is my supposition that, prior to the general use of typewriters and computers, an official in my hometown made such a small loop on the 6 in my birthdate that it was mistakenly considered a 1. In fact, I have an official Certificate of Registration of Birth issued in 1928 that clearly states the correct date, but I have also retrieved an old Certificate of Birth, typewritten in 1943 and signed by the town’s registrar, that has four typographical errors in it, including the date of birth. When my wife renewed her Florida Driver License last month, she was surprised to notice that the license she has used for the past 6 years, which included her picture and which she had repeatedly used for identification, had an M under the designation of “Sex” rather than an F. Over the years neither she nor anyone else had noticed the mistake. (1027)

Meaning of Names
07/01/10

All people in modern societies have individual names that distinguish them from other people having different names. There are both family names and personal names, but the number of names, the order in which they are written and how they are chosen differ, depending upon the culture. In China and Japan, not only the meaning of the names but the number of strokes used to write them is often taken into consideration. Many Americans do not know the meaning of their names nor why they were given them. In the case of my wife and me, we were never informed by our parents why they gave us our names but we have discovered their meanings. In my case, Clark is related to a “cleric,” a “clergyman” or a “clerk.” Since I am a clergyman and have also served as a clerk, the name is appropriate. My eldest sister has informed me that our parents were, at first, planning to spell my name with an “e” at the end until she pointed out that their names and the names of their three children all had five letters in them, so they eliminated the “e” (and used five-letter names for my two younger sisters also). My middle name, Benjamin, meaning “son of my right hand,” which was given to the last child of Jacob (Genesis 35:18), was also the name of one of my father’s brothers. My wife’s name, Barbara, is derived from a Latin word meaning “strange” or “foreign,” but I can attest that she never acts like a “barbarian.” Her middle name, Jean, is the feminine form of John, derived from the Greek name for Joshua, a Hebrew name meaning, “Yahweh has been gracious.” But “Smiley,” the name she chose as her clown name is especially appropriate. (1028)

Sweet Suites
07/01/14

Once a month on a Friday morning, my wife and I join other residents of our retirement community and go in our community bus to a symphony orchestra concert in the city of Jacksonville, about an hour away. At these “Coffee Concerts,” coffee, tea and cookies are available without charge in the lobby of the symphony hall before the concert begins. At the recent concert we attended, I was amazed not only at the beautiful music but at the irregularities in the spelling and pronunciation of English words. The amusing title of that concert was “How Suite it is!” in which the pronunciation rather than the meaning of “suite” was significant. The word spelled s-u-i-t-e, is pronounced the same as the word spelled s-w-e-e-t but it has a number of quite different meanings. It may mean “a series of connected rooms serving as a living unit” or “a set of matching furniture,” but in this case, it referred to “an instrumental composition . . .” and the orchestra played suites composed by Debussy, Bach, Tchaikovsky and Bizet. The word “sweet” denotes “a sugary taste,” “pleasing to the senses, feelings or mind” and those of us “senior citizens” who attended the concert would agree that the suites were sweet, which many of us would not say about modern music. Not only music, but words and dispositions also may be “sweet.” It is well for us to speak “sweet words” to others, remembering the words of the 103rd verse of the 119th Psalm, addressed to God: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” If more people used sweeter words in their conversations (and even in their criticisms), our world would be a much sweeter, happier place. (1029)

Right and Left
07/01/18

There are many customs and traditions in the U. S. A. and Japan that are very different. In some cases, they are completely opposite. To stimulate the thinking of Americans who have never been to Japan, I sometimes say, with a smile on my face, that, “in Japan, the ‘right’ side is the ‘wrong’ side and the ‘left’ side is the ‘right’ side.” Such a statement also reflects the complexity of the English language. In my dictionary, there are 12 definitions of “right,” one of which is the opposite of “left.” The opposite of another meaning of “right” is “wrong.” Because traffic rules in Japan were influenced by the British, cars run on the left side of the street, so the left side is the correct, or right, side and the right side is the wrong side. “Right” and “left” also have political implications, developed from the seating arrangements in the British Parliament. Those seated on the right side belonged to the Conservative Party and those seated on the left supported the Liberal Party, so “right” and “left” acquired political or philosophical significance as well. A major problem today, not only in American society but throughout the world, is the divergent views of the more conservative citizens and those who are more liberal in matters related to marriage, birth control, capital punishment, religious freedom, armed conflict, etc. In the inter-religious dialogue group I created in Japan, representatives of various religions and political perspectives met together regularly to share their views. It was emphasized that we should have open minds and listen respectfully to the views of those who had different opinions or beliefs and that is the emphasis that is needed by world citizens today. (1030)

Proofreader
07/01/22

A few years ago, soon after my wife and I entered this retirement community, I was asked to become a proofreader for the community’s monthly newsletter which includes statements from community officials, announcements of activities, social events, information regarding many different areas of interest as well as personal opinions of residents. In this case, “proof” does not denote “evidence establishing the validity of a given assertion,” but “a trial sheet of printed material.” and, according to my dictionary, to “proofread” means “to correct a printer’s proof while reading against the original manuscript.” Now, my designation has been changed to a “copy editor,” and my dictionary defines “copy-edit” as follows: “to correct and prepare (a manuscript, for example) for typesetting and printing.” Since I tend to be very meticulous in matters related to grammar and punctuation as well as spelling, I often make corrections with my red pen related to the placement of commas, periods and hyphens as well as word usage. At the present time, I am one of seven copy editors and the only man on the entire 13-member editorial staff. I presume my reputation related to picayunish matters is related to my experience in Japan, where I found it difficult to translate words, ideas, concepts into a completely different language and culture. I have concluded that it is impossible to make a perfect literal translation from one language to another for not only the literal meanings of certain words have very different implications in a different culture, but also some basic concepts are completely absent. This is one of the reasons for the perennial problem of international understanding. (1031)

Kansas
07/01/26

In approximately the middle of the 48 contiguous United States of America is the state of Kansas; January 29th is celebrated as “Kansas Day” in that state. As is the case for over half of the states, the name of this state comes from a Native American word. In the Sioux language, the name means “south wind people.” The State of Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state 146 years ago on January 29, 1861, following serious confrontations regarding whether or not slavery should be permitted in that new state, foreshadowing the Civil War, which began later that year. Most of what is now the territory of the present state of Kansas was included in the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the area of the United States in 1803, but parts of what is now Kansas were also claimed by Spain, Mexico and Texas, and a part of it was designated Indian territory until Kansas was recognized as a state. The nickname of the state of Florida, where my wife and I reside, is the “Sunshine State,” and the nickname of Kansas is the “Sunflower State.” Sunflowers are also considered a state symbol, but along with sunflowers, the state also produces wheat, corn, oats, barley, soybeans and potatoes. Problems relating to social issues, such as slavery, territorial disputes, political and military quarrels have characterized this nation’s history from the beginning and continue today, but the “ideal American way” of solving such disputes is to recognize the viewpoints or emphases of those with whom we may disagree and, in compliance with the Constitution, to permit the majority of citizens to determine the outcome by a fair election which the elected representatives agree to respect. (1032)

Scotch
07/01/30

When I was a child, I sometimes played a game with other children called “hopscotch.” On the wide sidewalk along the street in front of our house, we drew lines to create ten connected rectangles and wrote a number on each one. Then, one of us threw a stone onto one of the rectangles and hopped on one foot from one rectangle to another in numerical order, except for the one the stone was in, picked up the stone and hopped back to the starting line. The one who could do this without falling down or hopping on a line was one of the winners. I did not realize until I began to compose this message, over seventy years later, that, according to a dictionary, one meaning of the word “scotch” is “a line drawn on the ground, such as one used in playing hopscotch.” When written with a capital S, the word may denote a native or inhabitant of Scotland, but at the present time, Scottish men and women prefer the term “Scot.” As an adjective, “Scotch” means “tight with one’s money; frugal.” It may also designate a certain kind of whiskey that is distilled in Scotland from malted barley. There is also a certain kind of dog having a heavy-set body, short legs and a blunt muzzle which originated in Scotland, called a Scottish terrier. All of us have certain characteristics, whether we are Scottish, Japanese, American or of another nation and culture, which we have had since we were born, which have been enhanced or subdued by our experiences, which we should utilize to create a happier, more meaningful, more just and peaceful world. (1033)