Lost in transit

Tal Means Language

Once in a blue moon, I find that a dutch word describes something best. For example, today when I went to GP to discuss some allergy problems, the word that most aptly conveyed what had happened to me yesterday, as I cleaned a bit of the kitchen using a spray cleaner, was benauwd. In English, I would have to say that I was using this stuff and that suddenly, it felt like my lungs had filled with fluid. I couldn't breathe, I was frightened, I had to go to another room, where I sat for almost an hour. It was so....I felt so...benauwd.

As I sat in the tub a short while ago, going over the events of the day, another dutch word proved more precise, more apt. No one can decide how to spell it- for the government pays some group of people a large amount of money each year, it seems, to come up with new spelling rules for the dutch language- but the word is chenant.

I have been told by people in the know that no one uses this word. But I know it, so someone must use it.

Here is what chenant means : for the last five years, your son and your GP's son have been on the same, made- for- Disney soccer team. For five years, you have tried just to see him as another father, joked about the five year long losing streak, muttered under your breath about the goalie. Lots of laughs.

So, you come in with breathing problems, GP has to listen to your lungs. You have to lift up your shirt. You recently lost a good amount of weight and are suddenly aware that you never got around to buying a bra that fits, because you usually fake it, although some might call that layering. Your family is used to the eczema which covers odd parts of your body and the fact that you cannot wear anything which contains a Black Rubber derivative.

You were blessed with a baby at 42, about 10 years after your skin left the concept of elasticity way, way behind it.

Chenant means having to take off your shirt in front of the father of a kid that your son plays soccer with.

Chenant sounds just like one feels.

Posted by sue at October 13, 2005 07:13 PM