Discussing words...

[fajrdrako]

And interesting evening with Lisa and Lynne, discussing the nuances ramifications of awareness, coincidence, fortune, grace, interaction, karma, luck, magic, mindfulness, miracles, reciprocity, reward, serendipity, and synchronicity.

I said I'd look up these words, so here goes. From Chambers:

1. awareness (noun) the fact or state of being aware, or conscious, especially of matters that are particularly relevant or topical.
   
   
2. coincidence (noun) 1 the striking occurrence of events together or in sequence, without any causal connection. 2 the fact of being the same.
   
   Lynne quoted 'there is no such thing as coincidence'. I said I thought the more significant concept was synchronicity. I also thought of Miles Vorkosigan's (and Ian Fleming's) dictum: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
   
   
3. fortune (noun) 1 chance as a force in human affairs; fate. 2 luck. 3 (fortunes) unpredictable happenings that swing affairs this way or that • the fortunes of war. 4 (fortunes) the state of one's luck. 5 one's destiny. 6 a large sum of money. make one's fortune to become prosperous. a small fortune a large amount of money. tell someone's fortune to tell them what their destiny is.
   
   
4. grace (noun) 1 elegance and beauty of form or movement. 2 decency; politeness • had the grace to offer. 3 a short prayer of thanks to God said before or after a meal. 4 a delay allowed, especially to a debtor, as a favour • gave us two days' grace. 5 a pleasing or attractive characteristic • completely lacking in social graces • a saving grace. 6 a relig the mercy and favour shown by God to mankind; b relig the condition of a person's soul when they have been made free from sin and evil by God. 7 (His or Her Grace or Your Grace (plural Their or Your Graces)) a title used of or to a duke, duchess or archbishop. See also separate entry the Graces. verb (graced, gracing) 1 often facetious to honour (an occasion, person, etc), eg with one's presence. 2 to add beauty or charm to something. with a good or bad grace willingly or unwillingly.
   
   
5. interaction (noun) action or influence of people or things on each other.
   
   
6. karma (noun) (karmas) Buddhism, Hinduism 1 the sum of someone's lifetime's actions, seen as governing their fate in the next life. 2 destiny; fate. 3 popularly an aura or quality that is perceived to be given off by someone or something, or by a place.
   
   
7. luck (noun) 1 chance, especially as it is perceived as influencing someone's life at specific points in time • felt luck was on his side so he kept on betting. 2 good fortune. 3 events in life which cannot be controlled and seem to happen by chance.
   
   
8. magic (noun) 1 the supposed art or practice of using the power of supernatural forces, spells, etc to affect people, objects and events. Also called sorcery, witchcraft. 2 the art or practice of performing entertaining illusions and conjuring tricks. 3 the quality of being wonderful, charming or delightful. 4 a secret or mysterious power over the imagination or will.
   
   
9. mindful (adj) (usually mindful of something) keeping it in mind; attentive to it. mindfulness (noun).
   
   
10. miracle (noun) 1 an act or event that breaks the laws of nature, and is therefore thought to be caused by the intervention of God or another supernatural force. 2 colloq a fortunate happening; an amazing event • It's a miracle you called round when you did. 3 (colloq) an amazing example or achievement of something • a miracle of modern technology.
    
    
11. reciprocity (noun) 1 reciprocal action. 2 a mutual exchange of privileges or advantages between countries, trade organizations, businesses, etc.
    
    
12. reward (noun) 1 something given or received in return for work done, a service rendered, good behaviour, etc. 2 a sum of money offered, usually for finding or helping to find a criminal, stolen or lost property, etc. 3 something given or received in return, usually for usually for doing something good but sometimes for something evil.
    
    We were discussing this in terms of whether we do things - tasks, for example - for reward, and concluded that a reward system doesn't work well with any of us. We tend to do things for their own sake; though a variant of this is that we will do a task (say, housework) and then do something we wanted to do when the job is done (say, read a book). Not so much as a reward but as a delayed pleasure, since we know if we do the reading first, the housework will probably not get done.
    
    
13. serendipity (noun) the state of frequently making lucky or beneficial finds. serendipitous (adj) discovered by luck or chance.
    
    
14. I'm going to Wikipedia for this one:
    
    Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events, that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in the 1920s.[1] The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by their meaning. Since meaning is a complex mental construction, subject to conscious and unconscious influence, not every correlation in the grouping of events by meaning needs to have an explanation in terms of cause and effect.