Words are things about which I am pretty passionate. My love affair with words blossomed in my childhood when my sister and I repeated words just because they sounded funny. What I’ve discovered is that Words are Powerful. (almost 200 tags attest to this )
I publicly acknowledged the affair in1997 when I began my public speaking career giving presentations about life skills, and writing my first book, Thinking of Miller Place: A Memoir of Summer Comfort.
Examples that get special attention from me; serendipity, effective vs. efficient, and bok choy. Bok choy is word candy.
Word Candy: Sometimes we just like a word. The “tooth” of a word pleases our mouth. Toddlers teethe words endlessly. ~ Gail Sher
Recently, and serendipitously, a word found me that is both deliciously like word candy and effective. The word is recombobulation.
Discombobulated: adj. (Oxford Language) confused and disconcerted. Recombobulated: Ability to think clearly again; to be reoriented; put back into working order
The Back Back Story
During a conversation with my friend, S., we got on the subject of some basic life questions. Where do we come from? What happened before the universe? What will happen next? What is my purpose?
Me: I like talking about this, but I don’t like being in it. It just feels…
S: Discombobulated?
Me: Yeah, when I’m questioning my purpose, or what to do next, or why something very upsetting is happening, it’s squirmy. I get caught in the past or jump to the “what if’s” of the future, and end up feeling overwhelmed. I am learning, situation by situation, to live comfortably with the impermanence of life.
S. looked at me and asked, “Have you ever been to the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport?”
Huh?
So Here’s The Back Story
“Barry Bateman, the former director at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee understood the stress of going through security checkpoints. Fifteen years ago he invented a word for exactly what needs to happen after you’ve removed everything from your pockets, put your laptop in a separate bin (why?), stepped into a straight-outta-sci-fi scanner, raised your hands above your head and nervously waited for your belongings to roll through the X-Ray machine, even though you packed nothing to be nervous about…”
I know that feeling. I have felt extremely discombobulated, not just traveling. Surely you’ve felt discombobulated in the last few weeks. It fits when my own particular stress level has reached that point where mindful breathing has vanished. Counting to ten to calm down – Puhleeze! Monkey mind has either taken full control, or every cell in my brain has gone out for lunch or wherever they go when I am … DONE.
“After all that, Bateman knew travelers needed to recombobulate. And needed a designated area to do it. So, in 2008, the wise and good-humored manager (who retired in 2014), did what no other airport manager in the world thought to do: he invented a word and a concept, “recombobulation.” Then he somehow got the TSA to approve the creation of “Recombobulation Area” signs and get them installed just past the two security checkpoints in designated spaces with benches and chairs.”
Thank you, Molly Snyder senior writer OnMilwaukee
What a concept. It’s a time-out room, an infinity pool, a meditation space. I have not been to the Mitchell Airport but I have this image of a whole bunch of people staggering through the security check-in and smiling, laughing, nudging their friend when they see the sign. They can sit and slow down to retie, redress, and pat every pocket for phone, keys, wallet, id, and pat pat pat pat the boarding pass.
We have a room in our house listed in realtor.com as the guest room. It’s also our library room, or meditation room. The Off-The-Wall bed makes it my napping room, and the Tibetan bowl makes it the place where either Hank or I go to chill, striking our small bowl as we enter and exit. Now it is also the Recombobulation Area.
Taking this a step further and a bit more challenging, my recombobulation area can be a moveable feast (thank you, A.). A morning walk on a desert trail. Requirements: quiet, not dead silence, but quiet, no talking, a place to sit or lie down, a place to smooth out my ruffled feathers.
Ex.: Exiting the doctor’s office with a handful or instructions and a new RX. “Hold up there, I need to recombobulate. This bench’ll do.”
As a wordsmith I’m so pleased to read this: “The American Dialect Society voted on the words of the year, and the word that won the most creative word of the year was the compound “recombobulation area.”
What gets you discombobulated?
How do you recombobulate?
Create your own recombobulation area. Feel the ease.
Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She retired after 30 years of teaching, and semi-retired from coaching, and professional editing. Founder of the Eastside Tucson Writing Room based in Tucson AZ, she’s posted 100s of blogs, and is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, teaching about the power of words, gather writers together, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys teaching, speaking, and storytelling at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, Center for Spiritual Living Tucson, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.