Re: Cultural Keywords Revisited.

pbrown@polaris.umuc.edu writes:
> I think there's just something
>charged and electric about this kind of language - the kind of
>language that on the one hand is intimately human-to-human and on the
>other is equally intimately human-to-god. God is really someone you
>can fall in love with and talk dirty to!

I also like that interesting dichotomy of it. I think for most
fundamentalists in the US at least, using a word that has the meaning of
sexual and sensual love to express love for the divine would maybe turn
them white! But I feel that for the Saalangal at least, the love one finds
in a marriage or with a lover, is equal to a spiritual experience, and
spiritual love. Kind of a gift from god(s).

An Interesting thing about the word "tal" is that if a married couple uses
it to describe their marriage, the marriage is not close anymore, and
would be considered as a sign there is a problem in the marriage (or the
couple feels they need to go their own ways, but still have a friendly
love for eachother).


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'The beginning calls for courage; the end demands care'