Does Having a Word for the Year Help?
Published by shellypruittjohnson
My name is Shelly Johnson, and I am a writer and philosopher with a Ph.D. in philosophy. One of my primary personal and philosophical interests is how we can learn to love ourselves and each other better in order to cultivate personal and political resilience. I teach ethics and a variety of other courses at a local college. I am the author of the blog Love is Stronger. I am also the author of three logic and critical thinking books for high school and middle school: _Argument Builder_, _Discovery of Deduction_ (co-author), and _Everyday Debate_, published by Classical Academic Press. You can reach me at shellypruittjohnson@gmail.com. View all posts by shellypruittjohnson
Joy is my word. Last year it was gratitude.
I love that, Jan! I would love to hear how you felt like your word last year helped you, if you care to share. And no worries if you don’t!
So choosing this word thing is something new to me. I don’t remember encountering FB posts with this word of the year choice ever before. But I can go along with it. I think I have both a word and phrase that complement each other. My word: vulnerable. And my phrase comes from some Ralph Waldo Emerson I encountered recently: “Star by star, world by world, system by system shall be crushed–but I shall live.” Emerson lived from 1803-1882. He made this statement, according to my source, when he was only 20 years old.
Aaron, this is so cool! I love it that you are choosing “vulnerable” for your word. Whoa, Nellie, have I struggled with vulnerability in the past. Learning to embrace it, and show myself compassion through the process, has been life-changing for me. And that Emerson quote is wonderful. Cheers to you as you embrace vulnerablity in 2021.
Thanks Shelly. I can’t wait to read your next post. BTW, where is it that you teach? I earned my MA in English at Ohio State University. I loved it there, and I loved teaching freshman composition classes. But when it came time for doctorate work, which I could have easily done, I decided to be closer to my parents who live in northeast PA, and I took a high school position teaching American Literature. I’m glad I didn’t study further at the time because I would have probably studied early 20th century British literature, which I find a little nauseating and tedious now. I’m much interested in the American Romantic period, hence thee name of my blog , The White Whale.
That’s really cool you earned earn in your MA in English and that you taught freshman comp. I actaully originally applied to go to grad school in English, and I got rejected. I was crushed at the time, but in retrospect I am so glad I got rejcted because it lead me to philosophy. I teach at a college in KY. I am looking forward to reading your new post, too! And awesome job teaching high school English and caring for your parents. Those are such important things.