Every so often, I think about parts of speech and wonder which ones would be hardest to live without. (Hey, I did NOT say that this was a deep or particularly useful activity). My internal debate goes something like this: "Without verbs, we couldn't do anything." "Yeah? But without adjectives, we wouldn't know variety." "Oh yeah? Think about nouns! Where would we be without them?" "I know you are, but what am I?!!?"
One part of speech that I continually overlook in these inane exercises is the conjunction. Foolish me. Because, without something that bridges other things, what's the point of showing up for life?
Humans crave connections, even when we've been hoodwinked into believing that we like to keep separate things separate. Yes, we still build fences like there's no tomorrow. But most fences have a gate or a knothole or a foothold, and how long does it take us to seek out these links to the things that exist "out there"?
My life is richest when I can find a nougat that bridges me to others. Preferably, that nougat--that conjunction--isn't political or religious, but, rather, fluffy and surprising. Those connections--say, the realization that we both love the Talking Heads or bacon--are far more useful and powerful than any geopolitical beliefs we may or may not share.
Why? Because our shared humanity, even in the simplest terms, means that, when really serious differences erupt between us, we ourselves will not erupt, because we have connected ourselves to each other on the most personal level possible. And, in that connection--that love of common music or food--we can find a way to peacefully live with our differences and among each other.
If our relationships were solely based upon meaty connections, I suspect we would never learn the art of compromise or the beauty of diversity. Certainly, there would be no democracy. Or at least none worth calling our own. No. We should meet at the table and share food together. We should pop our heads over the fence and find some silly thing that connects us with our neighbors. We should celebrate the tenuous, most lame conjunctions that connect us and build ourselves a bridge that not even ideology or politics can break down.
THAT is a connection worth making.
(NOTE: Forget what a conjunction is? Here's a LINK to that famous song we loved as kids.
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