My Vocabulary
This is one of those thoughts that pops up once every so often. That my vocabulary is dying.
My vocabulary right now is fine. From a logical standpoint, I can hold a conversation, and can easily figure out the meaning of other words that I don't know (context clues moment). However, the big problem for me is when I start to express myself.
The act of expressing is creative -- you take something that's inside you (a feeling in this case) and try to turn it into something physical, like some letters or a painting. Also, you get to choose how those words come out. Are you sad or angry? Are you feeling more purple or orange? (Two colors I just made up) That sort of thing.
But there's a problem. Just like how a painting has more than one shade of blue or green in it, when trying to use language, there should be more than one way of expressing a concept. And there is. The problem is, I forgot.
Nowadays, it's only ever sadness and anger. Rarely do I reflect and say that I feel melancholy. It seems that all the words I use now are just variations on the word sad, without their particular and granular meaning that each word was designed to have. Going back to the painting metaphor, it would be as if blue-green and light blue and dark blue were all just variations on the color blue, rather than being distinct colors conveying distinct moods themselves.
Like most problems, I have no clue how to fix this. Better cross the river by feeling the stones, I guess.