the mind and language

"Linguistic history is basically the darkest of the dark arts, the only means to conjure up the ghosts of vanished centuries. With linguistic history we reach furthest back into the mystery: humankind."
- Cola Minis 1952

at my first college i worked in the library for two years. it was the most desired of all student jobs; the head librarian was a patient of my dad's. lucky me. i mainly worked at the circulation desk which was in turn the most desired of all library jobs; it was good because you could study and chat with people passing by...there was only one library at this school so everyone passed by at some point. and you could chat with your shift partner (the only one i remember now is alan, a boy who was a year ahead of me and on whom i had a slight crush, who spoke german and loved the alarm above all else) and make fun of things people checked out, after they left.

but what i also loved was shelving, which everyone else hated. you'd load up your little two-shelf rolling metal cart with all the books people had checked back in, or just left lying around. first you'd have to put them in order of where they needed to go in the library (there were four floors of stacks plus special collections areas, it seemed huge to me at the time though i expect now i'd feel differently). then you'd trundle around the library putting them away. it was mindless and tedious but for me it afforded both the time to indulge in my inner world and the motivation to explore every square inch of that library. i can still smell it, too, hundred-year-old musty paper. i knew all the best secret spots.

historical linguistics reminds me of libraries. dusty, old, arcane. it seems right to approach it respectfully, systematically, dreamily even. most people seem to think it's boring, but i think i could explore its hushed corners for hours at a time, totally happy, totally insulated.