(n.) breaking out afresh or into renewed activity; from the Latin recrudescere (“to become raw again”)
The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about … this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.
David Foster Wallace, from This Is Water
It may be awfully cliché, but with so much springtime surrounding us, a word that celebrates the breaking out of a long, grey winter resonates. Consider this poetic 2013 piece in which Bill Hayes finds renewed meaning in the resilience of trees. Feeling nostalgic? Revive yourself in British essayist Leigh Hunt’s classic revelry in the glory of spring. And of course, there is David Foster Wallace’s iconic 2005 speech, given to the graduating class of Kenyon College, on learning to look at the world anew.
