Streak

What a weird little word

Photo by Laura Ohlman on Unsplash

I’m fascinated by the way the English language can create a huge library of meanings from a single word.

Take streak, for instance.

I’ve written an essay on Substack for the past 38 weeks and I consider it a good streak—indeed, it’s one I didn’t want to break despite being a bit discombobulated this week. It got me thinking about the word itself and its broad array of meanings.

• Get back in there and wipe the streaks off the bathroom mirror!

• The comet streaked across the sky, sending the early humans into a fearful frenzy.

• The nude man streaked from third base to home plate before being tackled by police officers.

• The team’s streak of bad luck ended with their 10-0 rout of the Dodgers.

• Tears streaked his cheeks as he crossed the finish line.

And so on.

In a crazy language like English, it’s not always obvious what a word means. Even if there aren’t half a dozen different meanings, there are nuances that can cause misunderstanding or worse.

“But you said (fill in the blank), which means (fill in the blank)!”

“That’s not what I mean! How could you think that’s what I meant?”

“What else could I think? That’s what (fill in the blank) means!”

And so on.

What’s the solution? Do we need to carry around a thesaurus and a dictionary to ensure we parse every single word the same way our co-communicators do? The very thought exhausts me.

In a business contract, the parties must scrutinize every word, agreeing to meanings down to the scintilla of nuance. But that’s not a real, day-to-day experience for most of us. Our conversations shouldn’t require that kind of rigor—or irritation.

Perhaps there’s a better way. What if we simply assumed the best and asked questions to clarify the intended meaning? What if we wielded kindness instead of suspicion, grace instead of judgment? What if we were just…nice?

I believe words matter and I’m emphatic about using them properly. But when even the simplest words have numerous meanings, it’s nearly impossible to be understood all the time. I’m redoubling my efforts both to communicate clearly and to listen with an open mind and heart.

So here’s my attempt at clarity: My year has continued to go crazy and I am finding my ability to maintain schedules streaky at best. I try to publish my Substack essays on Monday or Tuesday and very nearly broke my streak this week by missing it altogether. Yet here I am, streaking to the finish at the eleventh hour on Wednesday night. Streak saved.

What has me so discombobulated (yes, I like that word and it isn’t a homonym!) is a streak of significant events in 2024, all of which are taking up valuable brain space. My debut novel, Bread Pudding in Barcelona, premieres on May 4^th and I will attend a launch event that day in central Florida. Two days later, I leave to co-facilitate a week-long writers’ retreat in France. I go to California for my black belt test the last week in June. And in a recent (and delightful) development, it turns out I’m getting married in October.

I suspect there may be streaks of tears in my future. Excitement, exhaustion, pain, and joy….

All from one little word.