Lord, the Carlos miniseries (2010) is so good.

A little chart I made:

[Season] is the time when the [x] of the world is revealed.

Spring:  Mystery

Summer:  Love

Fall:  Wisdom

Winter:  Truth

1. Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego): The wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who desire to initiate something, but are both reluctant to start.

2. Yuanfen (Chinese): A relationship by fate or destiny. This is a complex concept. It draws on principles of predetermination in Chinese culture, which dictate relationships, encounters and affinities, mostly among lovers and friends.

3. Cafuné (Brazilian Portuguese): The act of tenderly running your fingers through someone’s hair.

4. Retrouvailles (French):  The happiness of meeting again after a long time.

5. Ilunga (Bantu): A person who is willing to forgive abuse the first time; tolerate it the second time, but never a third time.

6. La Douleur Exquise (French): The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have.

7. Koi No Yokan (Japanese): The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love.

8. Ya’aburnee(Arabic): “You bury me.” It’s a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

9. Forelsket: (Norwegian):  The euphoria you experience when you’re first falling in love.

10. Saudade (Portuguese): The feeling of longing for someone that you love and is lost. Another linguist describes it as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist.”

I must go to Brazil next.  *Stares at google map of the Madeira River running through the Amazon*

I feel it’s absolutely necessary that we overcome our aversion toward discipline and efficacy, if we are to pursue change and a better future. Follow-through is the most neglected skill in left circles, and it’s a damn tragedy. Follow-through and the “will do” mentality is a muscle that needs to be trained — like any other way of doing things, or way of being, it is habit. It’s certainly not easy. But we are all in training. One thing’s for certain: the corporate world is a great training ground for this. It makes you actually do the things that you say you’ll do. If only we could internalize this and get rid of the weird incentive structures that make us do so.

True, there are different “types” of people, but there is danger in thinking that such “types” are unchangeable.  Each person always has the potential to transform themselves and be transformed.