Appendix · working glossary
Words of Movement
Words change; the movement they describe does not. These are the words this book uses to tell the movement, and the older words they replace.
the standard · the measure
A rule, grade or score given to help reach a goal. It makes the gap visible, and slowly it takes the goal’s place.
missing the mark
Aiming at something and landing beside it, without seeing that one has missed.
the gap
The space between a person and the thing he really wanted. Always named between two places.
the slide
The measure quietly replaces the goal, and no one decides it. Like a child on a slide: he takes part in the movement but does not steer it.
the pull
A word that names what must not be wanted turns the attention towards it, like the cupboard a child is told not to open.
the drift
The longer one looks at the measure instead of the goal, the further one moves from the goal.
the cry
The moment a person admits that he cannot fix his life from where he stands, because that place is the problem.
a life that is wearing me out
A way of living that wears down the very thing it reaches for. Not physical death.
the turn
The change that comes from inside the story, not from a better plan or more effort.
the numbers lose their power to judge
The measure stops being the verdict on a life once the person sees the story they are in.
a place inside the story
The point in the story where its turn has already happened. The person stops steering from outside and takes part from within.
from agency to participation
The core movement of the book: from running one’s life like a project to being part of a larger story.
recognition
Knowing someone, or one’s own place, again when one meets it. It happens to a person; it is not achieved.
aim and end
The point a standard was pointing to all along; one word for both.
a binding agreement
A lasting bond given before any rules.
unable to see
A people that cannot yet see where it stands in its own story.
what was hidden is shown
A plot that seemed broken turns out to have had a shape all along.
return to its place
Finding one’s place in the story again.
the unveiling
The moment humankind sees where it stands in its own history.
a life reads like a story
The moment old events fall into place and the road ahead shows where it was heading. Before it, a life has memories and plans but no plot.