Amo, Amas, Amat, and Then She Drools

I have got to get myself fluent in some languages other than English that are spoken today. I just went into the break room here at the office. There were three doctors getting coffee and talking language, instead of MRIs and angiograms for a change. One of them, backing into me, asked what a particular language sounded like--I don't know which language because this is when I entered the room. Another doctor replied something about French, Spanish, and Italian all coming from Latin, casting her smart around. I would liked to have joined in because, hey, I studied Latin and thoroughly immersed myself in translation (though I preferred Greek), and, hey, I know all about that Latin root business. Years having passed without regular immersion, however, I've lost a lot of vocabulary and need to refresh myself abundantly on grammar rules. So my participation in that conversation would have gone something like: "Yeah, I had three and a half years of Latin in college. And, yeah, French, Spanish, and Italian, they are rooted in Latin. You're right on that one, doctor. Uhh..." Which would have come off most dumb, and emptily haughty. Classics knowledge, and aptitude with the languages, both having become more and more distant from me post-college is a heavy cloud over the noggin. I have a degree, and then what? Time to do something about it or do something new.

One of the doctors left the room and the other two continued to converse in what sounded a little like Spanish, though not certainly. Of course, I've concluded that while I can hear nearly inaudible sounds that other people can't hear I might have a rare swampland hearing disorder in which sounds and syllables are muddied. The language may well have been obviously Spanish to somebody else's ear. To have looked up from the carton of half & half and jumped into the conversation those two doctors probably thought I was unable to understand would have pleased me greatly. In fact, any and every time I find myself in a situation where people shift into another language for secrecy, or maybe ease, I have achingly wished I could surprise them by including myself, or by later revealing their conversation and helping to solve a great mystery of universe. Sometimes I forget things are always changing and just because I studied Greek and Latin obsessively for those years, which colored me with something not everyone else had, doesn't mean I'll always know it and be colored with it, especially if I don't cultivate it. It's becoming an outline without the filler. This must be the same quality in me that makes me think my grandma is still 55. She's 73. Oh yeah, things change, and it's important to bring the whole brain along.

Speaking of brains and dumbitude, go here to read a short article on how research has shown that having children lowers the IQs of parents: http://www.hoosiergazette.com/News/Sept2004/news001.htm