Bruce’s Pick To Click – Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows

There is a lot of information available on the Internet. Most of it can be quite helpful. Some of it is quite entertaining. Let's be fair there is also a boatload of crap online that is simply put there for the wasting of time and energy.

I find myself visiting the wasted part of the Internet a lot more often than I do the other parts of this amazing technology resource.

Sometimes in my deep dark middle of the night searches I  find a place that makes me think. Such a site that I recently discovered is called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It's a website dedicated to filling in the blanks that the regular dictionary leaves out. It defines emotions and feelings that most of us have had or will have and gives that feeling a name and definition.  Let me share some examples with you.

Opia- The Ambiguous Intensity of Eye Contact : That's the feeling you get from looking someone directly in the eye. You know how you feel as if you are invading their private space? At the same time you feel vulnerable because you know they are seeing you as you are.

nodus tollens: That's the realization that your own life suddenly doesn't make any sense to you anymore.  It's as if you were reading the story of your life and you've forgotten several chapters and you feel the need to go back and read certain passages again.

silience: Look at the word again, it's not silence. It's silience and it's the feeling you get of noticing amazing talent around you everyday that would be acclaimed by thousands if only thousands had the chance to experience it. It's like the Country Showdown where local people who aren't singers take the stage and blow you away with their ability to sing. They could be superstars if only the circumstances of life were different.

sonder: That is the realization that everyone around you has a story. While we focus on celebrities, the most interesting stories are those of the regular people. Charles Kuralt did a series on CBS TV called "On The Road' and he went in search of the stories of the common man. Quite often he found that those stories were quite uncommon indeed.

That's just a very small taste of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I think if this was a book I would want to keep in the bathroom so I could read a definition or two while I had time to concentrate. I know that's an obscure thought but then again, isn't every thought we've ever had kind of obscure and unique?