No one will ever forget the spring of 2020 when the coronavirus Covid-19 sent 90 percent of the country and much of the world into isolating quarantine. Regardless of the underlying politics of the decisions that have been made each day, people are now sequestered in the middle of a journey for a new normal--unemployment, isolation from families and friends, a sudden lack of supplies for hospitals as well as ordinary households, and serious illness and death. Many wonder if life will ever be the same again.
My husband Patrick and I watched Queen Elizabeth deliver her address to the UK today while the rest of the world also watched via various screens. She asked us to remember when she served in the military during WW II and followed her countrymen as they struggled through extremely hard times. Yet they survived to rebuild their lives--not only survived but came back strong. This is not to say they have forgotten. One doesn't forget such times, but this message from the Queen was clear to all who listened: find purpose in life, help each other, and work together to do whatever is necessary to conquer the enemy.
As the pandemic spreads, the world has been exposed (pardon the pun) to a new vocabulary, new words and some old ones that we didn't expect to turn up in our daily conversations or news media: coronavirus, Covid-19, personal protective equipment (PPEs), social distancing, intubation, pandemic, and a host of others. We didn't choose to learn or to use this new vernacular. It was forced on us as we attempted to understand the unseen enemy.
Since this blog is all about literacy, especially the beautiful words we use to communicate with clarity and precision, I'd like to introduce to you another word, one that implies hope and promise, possibly an antidote to our current feelings of depression or perhaps simply to our weary struggles with life right now .
Empyrean
And it has a history that dates back to the Greeks--empyrios--fiery. But let's not stop here. There is so much more to this word.
In ancient cosmologies, heaven was the name given to the firmament--perhaps the sun filling the sky with its fiery tentacles. In later Christian literature, the Empyrean was the dwelling place, the throne of God. (I have no doubt early 18th Century Jonathan Edwards believed in a fiery God.)
In Dante's Paradiso (1307-1308), Dante ascends to the Empyrean where he sees the beautiful Beatrice and eventually he is also able to see God.
Today the word empyrean refers to the visible heavens, the firmament such as the one in this photograph. The adjective form is empyreal.
So, when would I ever use this word, you ask. Maybe never, but as with the other beautiful words in Lambent Literacy, it isn't so much the frequency of use but the meaning behind the words that encourages the reader to reflect, to grow in the way we view our lives, especially under duress.
Patrick and I have a garden that we visit every day. We have a bench that overlooks the entire landscape and that's where we sit, often with a cup of tea. The blue sky overhead is a canopy that envelops all below--the flowers, vegetables, our lemon and fig trees, the line of sugarberries, elms, and mulberries that the birds so happily planted for us. When I was little I thought God lived up there among the clouds beyond that canopy. As I grew older, I took on a more transcendental Jungian view: God is in me, His goodness in every thing He created. But as we often do, we've allowed the words firmament, heaven, Empyrean to be stand-ins. When we speak of God we often look up to the firmament even if we don't believe His throne sits anywhere up there. And that's okay. The visible helps us to accept the invisible.
So now you're wondering what all of this has to do with the Covid-19.
Well, it's about hope and promise. When you put it all together, it's possible to see the beauty and goodness around you, maybe that you haven't acknowledged in a while, that can strengthen your faith. Faith in your country, faith in humanity, faith in nature, faith in the people who love you, faith in yourself. It's another journey, one to the Empyrean in our minds, one that can save us and perhaps even change us so that what we choose to take from this new normal will mold us into kinder, more compassionate, more introspective human beings with a new plan for living well.
So, if you think you might want to add this word to your vocabulary, here's how to pronounce it:
Em pa re' an (Each a is a schwa sound and the accent is on re.)
It isn't over yet. Be safe and well. Be kind to one another.
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