Between Observations and Wishful Thinking

حالِمة

root: ح-ل-م / form I active participle / definition: dreamer, dreaming

Maybe, from my writings on this blog, you get the impression that I’m always floating between thoughts. An observation here, a dictionary find there, multiple pivots per post…

And you’d be right to think so, of course. My mind is always laden with: fifteen mental screenshots of dictionary entries; thirty-two unwritten notes for my PhD; two pages of projects I want to launch or pick up again; twenty-four recipes to try; and a long list of extinct languages I’d love to revive.

And that’s before I’ve even rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

The thing is, when you have this many thoughts and plans, is that the brain—poor thing—does often get overwhelmed.

I find myself multitasking in the most unproductive of ways. I start working on a new project before wrapping up any one of the last five. Or my to-do list gnaws at my concentration during task #1—prodding me to mentally prepare for tasks #2, #3, and #4—and then when I eventually finish the first task, I skip straight to #12!

But I like to think that this chaos of thoughts is down to that fact that I’m a dreamer, an optimist.

Whilst I know (logically) that one lifetime isn’t possibly enough to revive all of those languages, for example, a part of me (wishfully) believes that I can get at least halfway there.

And, to be fair to myself, I’ve made progress on many of these “wishful” plans—like when I attended an ancient language summer school, or studied Old Babylonian in evening classes.

On the topic of wishful thinking, I need to write a post about the particle لَيتَ soon. It’s a good one.

In conclusion (not that I really made a main point here), I’m leaning into the chaos of my thoughts. It’s this colourful, out-of-tune symphony of ideas and what-seems-like-wishful thinking that drive me to step through new doors.

And there’s nothing wrong with leaving all those other doors open, anyway.

I mean, who knows when I’ll go back to studying Sumerian?

(I think I’ve closed the door on Luwian, though. We just didn’t vibe.)

!إلى اللقاء