Welcome to the Language of No Future
This is the beginning of a blog documenting the life of my flypaper mind. I am a language person, and one of my latest obsessions is Latin. So I will begin with a thought passed on to me two days ago by my Latin tutor. The Romans, it is said, did not use the phrase "face the future." Their turns of phrase indicate that for them you face the past, because that is all that is ever known. We are all walking backward into present memory. Beyond that, there is only present expectations. The future, the unknown, doesn't really exist, and so can never be faced. On another note-- don't forget that "carpe" in "carpe diem" is using an agricultural term: "harvest the day" is closer than the usual translation "seize." Cultivation blessings.