funkenzwangsborstellung – n. the primal trance of watching a campfire in the dark.
I am not a big camper, but 3-4 times a year we usually go out with horses. Usually my wife rides and I relax, play guitar, and cook. Often we do build a campfire if the area isn’t under restrictions, and it’s nice to sit and stare into the fire.
I don’t know what it’s relaxing, but I do enjoy the funkenzwangborstellung.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
gobo – n. the delerium of having spent all day in an aesthetic frame of mind, taking photos across the city, getting lost in an art museum – which infuses the world with an aura of meaning, until every crack in the wall becomes a commitment to naturalism, and every rainbow swirling in a puddle feels like a choice.
I wish I could get lost in an art museum, but it’s not my thing. I can enjoy them for a bit, and I like having various Van Gogh paintings as a part of my wallpaper, but only for a bit. I do, however, enjoy spending a few hours wandering a city, taking pictures, and enjoying the world for what it is. My wife and I do this more often than hitting tourist attractions when we travel. Instead enjoying life in another place as it exists during a normal day for many others.
I do try to stop and enjoy the world I see, big things and small, as I go through life. I rarely spend all day doing anything, but I do enjoy the moments when I can.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
harmonoia – n. an itchy sense of dread when life feels just a hint too peaceful – when everyone seems to get along suspiciously well, with an eerie stillness that makes you want to brace for the inevitable collapse, or burn it down yourself.
I don’t want to burn things down, but I do like a little chaos in my life. I struggle to sit still and when things go too well, I worry about what will go wrong.
It’s funny, but so much goes well in my life. I find great weather traveling, I get upgraded on flights or in hotels, events go smoothly, it’s somewhat amazing. I stop and think about this and appreciate the things that go well.
However, sometimes life has gone a bit too well and I do think that something bad, or relatively bad, is likely to happen. I have no good reason, but I think harmonoia is something many people feel and it’s a good combination of harmony and paranoia.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
ringlorn – adj. the wish that the modern world felt as epic as one depicted in old stories and folktales – a place of tragedy and transcendence, of oaths and omens and fates, where everyday life felt like a quest for glory, a mythic bond with an ancient past, or a battle for survival against a clear enemy, rather than an open-ended parlor game where all the rules are made up and points don’t matter.
Lots of people yearn for a time gone past. Often I think the place they remember fondly exists in their mind and doesn’t really reflect what they lived, or what they heard about (or read about).
I find that I struggle with a lot of time periods of the past. Pre-1900, convenience and facilities were a mess. I wouldn’t long for that. I have never been much of a WWI/WWII person, and even the booming 20s, being a minority, I don’t know that I’ve have enjoyed that time.
Maybe the one time period I find enchanting, though I wouldn’t want to live then, was 1600s Japan, and the Samurai era.
If I were picking another time, then the late 60s in the US, the Age of Aquarius, the struggles of civil rights, the chance when people really stood up to make their voices heard. I find that interesting. I was born in that era, but to be a 18-30 yr old then would have been enchanting.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Voice of the DBA 