Alive.

By the second grade, when asked to define a word, students are expected to refrain from reiterating it in their explanations. Most fail initially, but eventually they catch on. After all, how are you to elucidate on its meaning to someone completely oblivious of it, by simply restating the word? That’s like trying to explain the beauty of The Mona Lisa to the congenitally blind. 

But we all fall victim to it at some point. Especially when pondering the conceptual. Even the dictionary can’t compete eventually.

Take the word alive, for example. Open any collection of definitions and you’ll find something along the lines of “having life”, “full of life”, “the state of living”, and my personal favorite, “being alive”.  

But what does that mean? Is merely being in possession of all necessary vital functions indicative of being alive? Is existing implicative of living? Is human life equatable to that of a sea sponge? 

That’s where the lexicon fails.

“Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.”
— E. E. Cummings 

Mr. Edward Estin Cummings had it right. God rest his soul.

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