Exulansis
n. the tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it- whether through envy or pity or simple foreignness- which allows it to drift away from the rest of your life story, until the memory itself feels out of place, almost mythical, wandering restlessly in the fog, no longer even looking for a place to land.
On the second day of my time at Colorado College a friend introduced me to this word. In a conversation where many different words were thrown at me, this one made me stop to think. This word completely emulated the struggle I faced at the time, and a struggle I soon realised everyone battled. “The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it”: My parents had warned me about this.
Describing my life Bali is like describing a dream, a strange elapse of time where I experienced a world like nothing else. I even stop to question myself when describing experiences I’ve had: did that really happen?? “Which allows it to drift away from the rest of your life story, until the memory itself feels out of place”. It is sad, but strangely wonderful and special to think that I am the only one who will ever truly understand my life, and that I will never truly understand the lives of those around me.
I realized that every other person on this trip was feeling similar. Each individual house on each street, in each town or city or state is so different. We will never truly understand the lives of one another, but there is so much beauty in that.
Words. This word. I felt comfort in learning that there was a single word that could so clearly describe my experience.
There are fewer languages spoken in the world today than ever before. Being abroad in countries that are so rich with language has really made me appreciate its existence. In studying Shakespeare, Blake, and other wonderful writers, I found a real appreciation in the development and ancient existence of words. We are native speakers of the dominant language in the world (English) and it is easier for us to forget the importance of language, and the significance in single words.
Growing up in Bali allowed me to observe the way in which language can really connect people, for to learn a language is to learn its culture in the truest sense.
Language derives and develops from other language – so if we are losing language then how can other languages develop? The language we use through text is an example of the decay of complexity and beauty in language. Words like Exulansis need to become more prominent. Language creates our surrounding world, as it allows us to describe and share what we experience. With the decay of language, should we also expect decay in the beauty and experience of our surrounding world?
Does language in fact allow our surroundings to come into focus? Because we can describe or label something, does that allow it to exist? With the loss of description, should we expect a loss of appreciation in our surrounding world?
