Monday, November 24, 2008

"Six Words to Describe my Life"
6:02pm

A little over a year ago, I learned of a project in which people described their lives in three words. The morning radio show people had listeners call in with them. I chose WONDER WITHIN, WITHOUT, and had a little drawing in my journal.

Today they brought a new version of this to the radio program, expanded to SIX words. I could not call in, but I did a websearch and found the origin of the book made from these six word memoirs, SMITH Magazine, who asked readers to contribute them. It is from these that the book _Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure_ was created. Perhaps they will have a second volume in which my short memoir will appear!

"Magic everywhere, learning daily, so grateful."

As I pondered this, I wondered what it would look like in Egyptian hieroglyphs. I remembered a phrase in Brier's book on magic:


"Magic is everywhere", in Egyptian hieroglyphs, (via Bob Brier's _Ancient Egyptian Magic_)

However, I wanted to know more, I wanted to know what each word meant and how to pronounce them. Breaking this down to learn the words and their pronounciation, I checked Budge. However, as I was deciding how to write this in ancient Egyptian, I learned I needed to rephrase things to fit my meanings. I want to suggest that I'm AWARE of magic everywhere. I couldn't find 'aware' in Budge's dictionary, only 'awake' and 'to know, to understand'. Yes, this fits my intent. To know and to understand is better than just merely being aware of its presence, but also how I might attain a more active role in bringing it about.

I had a bit more trouble with finding words for the last phrase, 'so grateful'. Looking in Budge's two volume dictionary in the English words index, I don't find 'grateful', 'gratitude', nor even 'appreciation'. There is, however, "to offer thanksgiving"(with a emphasis towards thanking the gods) and "to give thanks". Remembering one element of those phrases as being pronounced dua, not tua, as I've seen in Wilkinson's book adds to the complexity. Hmmm. Perhaps 's-dua' is is the closest to what I mean.


"To know, to understand" "magic" "everywhere"
Amam heka bu neb


"To learn" "daily, perpetually"
Sba m-amenit


"To give thanks" "daily"
S-dua m-amenit

That might be a bit more than 'six words'!
(I've placed that all into one image, as well.)

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