More than once in a high school classroom, I used the word “delightful.” To me, it was just a way of expressing an experience I had had. I remember once commenting to a class that had just come into the room what a good time we had had the day before with a particular activity that involved stuffed animals and the stories we made from them. A young man who had been absent that day said–what happened? What did I miss? I responded briefly by saying: we had a delightful time. He looked puzzled, and then he said: delightful. That’s an interesting word. Nobody uses that word. What does it mean?
In this young man’s experience “delightful” was a strange if not unknown word. Because he let me know that, I explained to him, in brief, what we had done the day before, how much we laughed and how creative various students in the room became with their stuffed animal characters. I finished by saying “It was delightful.” The student responded: “yeah, delightful.”
This has made me think on more than a few occasions since then why it is that our culture doesn’t make “delight” more prevalent in our every day encounters–as a word that we use to describe our experiences and as basic experiences themselves. What has made you smile today? What has made you laugh? What has given you a sense that things are right where they should be? What has appeared to you as beautiful, loving, warm, welcoming and freeing? How would you name your daily delights?
~Bob Patrick
Apparently, delight has no generational boundaries. Usually High School students scoff at words that aren’t used in rap songs or in the social lingo ….I’m so glad you brought this one to life for them.
Maybe one of them will incorporate it into positive hip hop and begin to see and feel it in their daily life! bring it home.