noosphe-re

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The battle with the gods thus hinges on our own mortality! Creativity is a yearning for immortality. We human beings know that we must die. We have, strangely enough, a word for death. We know that each of us must develop the courage to confront death. Yet we also must rebel and struggle against it. Creativity comes from this struggle—out of the rebellion the creative act is born. Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death. Michelangelo's writhing, unfinished statues of slaves, struggling in their prisons of stone, are the most fitting symbol for our human condition.

Rollo May, The Courage to Create

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On an early paper of Maryam Mirzakhani, William J. Martin, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, October 18, 2017

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Hand model kinematic structure frontal view. For visual clarity, thumb base rotations (1), and finger chain parameter indices are not shown. (van der Hulst, Frank & Schätzle, Simon & Preusche, Carsten & Schiele, André. (2012). A functional anatomy based kinematic human hand model with simple size adaptation.)

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regime (n.)

"system of government or rule, mode of management," 1792, from French régime, from Old French regimen (14c.), from Latin regimen "rule, guidance, government, means of guidance, rudder," from regere "to direct, to guide" (from PIE root *reg-"move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line," thus "to lead, rule").

Earlier "course of diet, exercise" (late 15c.), a sense now pertaining to regimen(q.v.). In French, l'ancien régime refers to the system of government which prevailed before the revolution of 1789.

Etymonline

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Writing is selection. Just to start a piece of writing you have to choose one word and only one from more than a million in the language. Now keep going. What is your next word? Your next sentence, paragraph, section, chapter? Your next ball of fact. You select what goes in and you decide what stays out. At base you have only one criterion: If something interests you, it goes in—if not, it stays out. That’s a crude way to assess things, but it’s all you’ve got. Forget market research. Never market-research your writing. Write on subjects in which you have enough interest on your own to see you through all the stops, starts, hesitations, and other impediments along the way.

John McPhee, Omission: Choosing what to leave out, The New Yorker (September 7, 2015)

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mellifluous (adj.)

early 15c., "sweet as honey, pleasing, sweetly or smoothly flowing" (of an odor, a style of speaking or writing, etc.), from Late Latin mellifluus "flowing with (or as if with) honey," from Latin mel (genitive mellis) "honey" (related to Greek meli"honey;" from PIE root *melit- "honey") + -fluus "flowing," from fluere "to flow" (see fluent). Related: Melifluously; melifluousness.

Etymonline

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Plastic arts are art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium, such as clay, wax, paint – or even plastic in the modern sense of the word (a ductile polymer) – to create works of art. The term is used more generally to refer to the visual arts (such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, architecture, film and photography), rather than literature and music. Materials for use in the plastic arts, in the narrower definition, include those that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete, glass, or metal.

Wikipedia

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As the person gains more consciousness of self, his range of choice and his freedom proportionately increase. Freedom is cumulative; one choice made with an element of freedom makes greater freedom possible for the next choice. Each exercise of freedom enlarges the circumference of the circle of one's self.

Rollo May, Man’s Search for Himself

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Matter may be infinitely subtle. Science doesn’t know all about it, and probably never will. But matter is not just mechanical. Therefore, it could respond to perception in very deep and subtle ways which may be beyond what science could even trace; there could be a change. That’s the notion: that insight or perception will affect the whole thing. It not only affects the inferential understanding, but it also affects the chemical level, the tacit level—everything.

David Bohm, On Dialogue

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aura (n.)

1870 in spiritualism, "subtle emanation around living beings;" earlier "characteristic impression" made by a personality (1859), earlier still "an aroma or subtle emanation" (1732). Also used in some mystical sense in Swedenborgian writings (by 1847). All from Latin aura "breeze, wind, the upper air," from Greek aura "breath, cool breeze, air in motion" (from PIE *aur-, from root *wer- (1) "to raise, lift, hold suspended").

The word was used in the classical literal sense in Middle English, "gentle breeze" (late 14c.). The modern uses all are figurative. In Latin and Greek, the metaphoric uses were in reference to changeful events, popular favor.

Etymonline

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Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

Rollo May, The Courage to Create

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Mo(ve)ment

Ahmed Salman

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We live in a world that has become mechanized to an amazingly high degree. Irrational unconscious phenomena are always a threat to this mechanization. Poets may be delightful creatures in the meadow or the garret, but they are menaces on the assembly line. Mechanization requires uniformity, predictability, and orderliness; and the very fact that unconscious phenomena are original and irrational is already an inevitable threat to bourgeois order and uniformity.

Rollo May, The Courage to Create

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scheme (n.)

1550s, "figure of speech" (a sense now obsolete), from Medieval Latin schema "a shape, a figure, a form, appearance; figure of speech; posture in dancing," from Greek skhēma (genitive skhematos) "figure, appearance, the nature of a thing," which is related to skhein "to get," and ekhein "to have, hold; be in a given state or condition" (from PIE root *segh- "to hold").

It is attested by 1610s as "linear representation showing relative positions pf the parts or elements of a system" (especially in astrology). The sense of "program of action" is by 1640s, also "outline, draft of a book, etc."

The meaning "plan of action devised to attain some end" is by 1718, and unfavorable overtones (selfishness, deviousness) began to creep in to the word after that time. The meaning "complex unity of coordinated component elements, a connected and orderly arrangement" is from 1736. In prosody by 1838. Color scheme is by 1890 (in Milton Bradley Co.'s "Color in the School-Room"); earlier scheme of colour (by 1877).

Etymonline

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Dermatoglyphic pattern of the palm Bhardwaj, Nikha & Bhardwaj, Pankaj & Tewari, Vineeta & Siddiqui, Mohammed. (2015). Dermatoglyphic analysis of fingertip and palmer print patterns of obese children. International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health. 4. 10.5455/ijmsph.2015.25122013194.

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Skull-sky. Skin-sea. Heart-earth.

Ahmed Salman

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palimpsest (n.)

"parchment from which earlier writing has been removed to clear it for new writing," 1660s, from Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsestos "scraped again," from palin "again, back" (from PIE *kwle-i-, suffixed form of root *kwel- (1) "revolve, move round'" PIE *kw- becomes Greek p- before some vowels) + verbal adjective of psēn "to rub smooth," which is of uncertain origin. Related: Palimpsestic.

Etymonline