As a matter of fact, in doing a little spot googling searching for that exact quote, which I failed to find, I see that resilience is a kind of leit motif in his thinking and speaking. He has called New Orleans a national symbol of resilience, and praised India for its resilience too.
Of course, like you, I do know what resilience means. It means the ability to bounce back, usually after adversity of some sort. What I don't know is where it originally comes from. The re-, of course, means "again" in some sense, but what is the 'silience' all about? I actually have no clue. It doesn't really connect to anything else I know. Well, unless you have a better idea, I guess it's time to take a look...
Well, well, well, if it isn't our old friend salire, "to jump, to leap", come back to haunt us. (No, not Salieri, that's a different old friend.) Sure, we are thrown off the scent by the fact that our last encounter was a -sult ending (consult, insult, result, desultory) and this is a -sil connection, neither of which sound all that much like -sal.
Whatever. I suppose all that leaping around blurs the vowels a bit. But just to be clear--
That's Antonio Salieri, the musical rival of Mozart's, who probably got a bit of a bum rap from popular history when it came to his fellow musician's death. Let's hope that if he knew the rumors, he proved resilient in living them down.
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I would have never put resilient with desultory. "re-leap" makes a bit of sense though.
ReplyDeleteNo, me either. But I think it's going to lead to a couple of more related posts, as long as everyone can stand it.
ReplyDeleteOr really, I guess, even if they can't.
Seana
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough they were playing Salieri on the radio last Sunday. It sounded all right to me. I do wonder, though, if he'd be played at all but for the Mozart connection and the play and film Amadeus.
Having scrolled through that rather long Wikipedia article to make sure I had the whole Mozart thing right, I think Salieri might be making a kind of a comeback. I might listen to a bit of his stuff myself. Sure, he isn't Mozart, but who is?
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ReplyDeleteWith respect to Obama and resilience, Jimmy Carter was the last American president to commit the deadly sin of pessimism. He is doing penance for it to this day.
ReplyDelete==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Pessimism is unamerican, Peter, surely you know that by now.
ReplyDeleteMichelle Obama did a lot of jumping and dancing (as part of a tribal dance show performed for their benefit by school children in India). She joined in with natural flair and grace and copied the steps pretty well. Unlike her spouse, whose smile was more charming than his dancing skills. The footage was re-played over and over again on the local TV channels. That would be a kind of visual 're-jumping', although the Obamas would seem to require a lot of resilience to jump back from the present loss of their popularity after the initial euphoria.
ReplyDelete"Resilient"... a word coined for the Irish, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIf one can survive this island, one can survive anything.
I would say pessimism is treasonous in America, but it's more like heretical. And I guess Barack Obama won't do much onm "Dancing With the Stars" when Americans start choosing their presidents that way.
ReplyDeleteLove, love, love learning about words from you. And Happy Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteSucharita, I bet Barack could learn, though, which is not the case with everyone.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really part of the Barackmania that swept the left before his election, mainly because of a fundraising date he failed to keep for a group home my cousin runs in South Chicago, but I seem to be one of the few people I know who hasn't grown that disillusioned either.They were really tearing him apart on MSNBC last night--it must require a bit of resilience when it's coming at you from both directions. I think perhaps his administration hasn't been very good at broadcasting what they actually have accomplished.
Good to see a new blog post from you!
Well, Americans want a messiah, and that's hard job to live up to.
ReplyDeleteTales,
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's simply because my only visit to Ireland was during the boom years, but for some reason, the way capital has washed in and then washed out there has saddened me more than its effect on any other place--and boy, are there a lot to choose from right now.
Good luck.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, heretical, not treasonous. Although the penalties may be equally severe.
If Bristol Palin is any indication, it will be perfectly acceptable for Obama to send in a wife or a daughter as his proxy.
Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteAnd a happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
I hope you triangulate anything I say here with other sources, though, because really, half the time, I don't know what I'm talking about. And that's probably a generous estimation...
I'd suggest that an Obama-Palin dance-off to decide the presidency would be a good idea, but I'm sure the sketches have been written or the contracts drawn up already.
ReplyDelete==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Oh, don't worry, Seana... there is more to life than money.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of posturing and whining about the world economy these days. We must be resilient...
World leaders have always puzzled me. They take up such a lot of space.
Well, I suppose it's only the space we give them, Photographe. It's the space we give people who aren't world leaders that puzzles me sometimes.
ReplyDeleteYou know you're out of the loop when People Magazine announces the sexiest man in the world and you've never even heard of him.
You know you are seriously outside the loop when you have never heard of People Magazine...
ReplyDeleteBut probably better off for it, Tales.
ReplyDeleteI know far more about it than I would like to, simply because we always have it on display by the cash register. I can't actually see if from there, but at least a couple of people per shift will offer some kind of commentary or solicit an opinion. I also frequently have to absolve them of their guilt over buying it for some reason.
I occasionally scratch my head in ignorance over the name of some sexiest man or woman. Do these people actually do anything? Are they sexy because they're successful? Successful because they're sexy?
ReplyDeleteIn re guilt about "People," remember the old joke about guys who claim they read "Playboy" for the articles? What self-exculpatory claim can "People" readers make?
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
The funny thing is that they don't excuse themselves. They treat it like a vice, when really it's just easy entertainment. One of my friends at work reads it for the book reviews, though, simply to know what kind of buzz is going. But she'd never pretend that she doesn't read the rest of it as well.
ReplyDeleteHmm, guilty about easy entertainment, are they? That's a phenomenon fraught with interest. I wonder if it prevails more in the U.S. than elsewhere.
ReplyDelete==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Maybe. I think it definitely has something to do with buying it in what people perceive to be a 'high-toned' bookstore,even though if less than half the staff read it, I'd be surprised.
ReplyDeleteThere's something oddly conforting in the knowledge that customers read People even in a high-toned bookstore.
ReplyDeleteIt's not all that high-toned, frankly. It's just a perception.
ReplyDelete"You know you're out of the loop when People Magazine announces the sexiest man in the world and you've never even heard of him."
ReplyDeleteYou and me both Seana
Well, then, it's oddly comforting that in a city that has a vegan diner and whose university has a history of consciousness department, people still read People.
ReplyDeletePeople...people who read People. They're the luckiest people in the world.
ReplyDeleteOr, as wistful physicians might have sung when leeching was falling out of favor:
ReplyDelete"People ... people who bleed people ... are the luckiest people in the world.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I used read all the Supeman and Spiderman comics in the 1960's with no apology.
ReplyDeleteThe question of high and low brow literature looks set to continue.
Once a piece is well written, it is worth reading, I think.
American magazines are very popular in Ireland. My hairdresser introduced me to "The National Enquirer" years ago.
It's a bit weird, I have to admit.
You know, I had friends who aspired to write for the National Enquirer. This doesn't mean that they wanted to be reporters, though.
ReplyDeleteThese days, they would probably aspire to write for the Onion instead.