The word serendipity was coined by Horace Walpole on reading a “silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of...."
I learned this word origin because this week Jane and Phineas were talking about ordering the Miracle Berry on the internet. When chewed, this purportedly causes sour substances to taste sweet. That’s the commercial name; she didn’t know the real name.
Later in the week Jane at graduation got talking with one of the seniors about his camera, a very nice Nikon like hers, and she asked him whether he had a tripod. He didn’t but he wanted one when he could afford it.
Coming home that evening Jane stopped to poke around a pile of stuff at the bottom of our hill marked, “free.” There was a perfectly good tripod just right for his camera!
It was “Kismet” she said when she told me the story, and I said, “Serendipitous!”
I had never heard of kismet. After the boys left the dinner table I asked, “What does kismet mean” and, first downloading a dictionary, tried to look it up on my iPod. Jane got a real dictionary and looked up kismet, meaning “fate.” Serendipity was a better fit: “finding something fortunate that one does not seek.”
Still downloading, I asked, “Where does serendipity come from?” Searching for this word , Jane found instead the entry for serendipity berry: a berry, “when chewed, that causes sour substances to taste sweet.”
New and collected mind-prints. by Zphx. Following H.D.Thoreau 170 years ago today. Seasons are in me. My moods periodical -- no two days alike.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts Last 30 Days.
-
November 11 November 11, 2017 7 Α . M. - To Hubbard Bathing-Place. A fine, calm, frosty morning, a resonant and clear air except a slight w...
-
The seasons and all their changes are in me. Now leaves are off we notice the buds prepared for another season. As woods grow silent we at...
-
A year is made up of a certain series and number of sensations and thoughts which have their language in nature. Henry Thoreau, June 6, 1...
-
November 9. It is remarkable that the only deciduous trees in the town which now make any show with their living leaves are: (1) scarlet...
"A stone fruit. Each one yields me a thought." ~ H. D. Thoreau, March 28, 1859
No comments:
Post a Comment