is
Poser cale)
Hicks
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wo points for you if you just pegged me as a Gen-Xer by my use of the word poser. Two more points if you know what midtwentieth-century satirical American movie I just referenced in the subtitle. Now let’s tackle monachopsis since you’re wondering what the heck that is. Actually, it’s not a “real” word. It’s a poser word. It’s not listed in The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but you will find it in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Monachopsis (pronounced “mo-na-kopsis”) is a noun, and it is defined as “the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place, as maladapted to your surroundings as a seal on a beach—lumbering, clumsy, easily distracted, huddled in the company of other misfits, unable to recognize the ambient roar of your intended habitat, in which you’d be fluidly, brilliantly, effortlessly at home.” Ahh, you’re saying now, I see where she’s going with this… I honestly don’t remember where I first came across this word, but it was recently. I jotted it down in my notebook where I keep a bunch of my writing ideas. Whoever first came up with it joined the Greek monos (solitary or alone) with opsis (appearance or semblance). As I pondered the word, I asked myself, Are TCKs—especially those of us who have moved a lot—doomed to perpetual monachopsis? In other words, do we ever stop feeling like posers? That question prompted several others, which we’ll explore together here. The first is this:
How do we know when we’re “invested” enough in a locale (city, town, community) to work on its behalf?
December 2020
14
