On Language and Light.

I’ve noticed an odd little communication curio creeping into the language over past few years. It seems that whenever you have dealings with a young person, almost whatever the situation, they nearly always say ‘see you later’ when the dealings are concluded. Rarely do they say ‘goodbye’, even when the chances of having further dealings are most unlikely and they’re never going to see you again.

I wonder why this habit should have developed and can’t readily come up with an answer. But I also wonder whether young French people say ‘au revoir’ when ‘bonjour’ would be more appropriate. And the same question applies to all other languages. (I suspect it might only apply to English, however, because I’m inclined to guess that it’s been borrowed from America.)

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We had a power cut this evening just as I was reading something on the computer screen, and it occurred to me that we never get used to the impact a power cut has. There you are taking the sights and sounds all around you for granted, when everything stops without warning. The world is suddenly plunged into complete darkness and silence. I wonder whether this is what happens for some length of time after we die, until some celestial power raises the light level again on a wholly different world.