Nouns and the Verbs That Enable Them

What do you think about when you’re thinking of nothing?  I’ll bet it’s not nouns and the verbs that enable them.  It doesn’t seem to be the most obvious thing in the hit parade of common thought.  But then again, this thinker would never lead the list of people determining the makeup of conventional wisdom…and I kind of like it that way.

Anyway, here’s just a small list of the verbs I’ve known and how they enable their nouns.  Many have played a role in my own life’s course.

Players play.  (Indeed, that was me as a child using pent up energy on swings and jungle gyms, softball diamonds and football fields, playing Skittle Bowl or The Game of Life.  Yes, I was a player.  I am a player.)

Performers perform.  (I began music lessons at age five and performed my first impromptu concerts shortly after that.  It was the start of an enjoyable musical journey that took me through high school band into a small music conservatory.  The same love for musical performance bled over into finding fun in public speaking.  That comes in handy even now as I offer running commentary to tour groups young and old in our nation’s capital.)

Teachers teach.  (My career may have begun as a public school music teacher in a small coal mining town in northeastern Pennsylvania, but I actually began teaching as a small child by playing school with my friends and siblings.  Instead of “doodling” when I was bored in school, I found myself writing up music test questions, for fun.  Yes, I know this may be weird, but after all…teachers teach.)

Dancers dance.  (This one has always been an “in your dreams” notion for me, but it’s a truism nonetheless.  In my college dance classes, I realized that dancers do indeed dance.  Unfortunately, it was at that time that I learned somewhat definitively I was not one of those.)

Writers write.  (As a very small child, I took great pleasure in going to my father’s study in the evenings and typing up stories on his black, manual typewriter.  When I was just seven, I would ease in behind the rounded sectional of our corner sofa to what I called my office, sit on a small stool I’d placed under the standing lamp, and proceed to write chapters of a book about two children and their ponies on a yellow legal pad.  With this blog, I am once again “teaching” myself that I am a writer, and that means I must write.)

Preachers preach.  (I’ve known many preachers in my life.  My grandfather was one.  So was a favorite uncle.  My father became one, and so did some cousins.  They didn’t decide to preach…they had to preach.  It’s what preachers do.  And now, though I am not a preacher in the vocational sense, I, too, sense that I am a preacher.  It’s a good and right feeling.)

I think you get the drift of how I’ve known many nouns and the verbs that enable them.  But I’d like to leave you with an example that just occurred to me recently.  It is one that I hope defines my very being.  And I’m serious now.  Are you ready?  Here it is.

Karen’s care.  (Okay, I know this is a homonym, but that doesn’t matter so much does it?  When I think about what drives me forward from one day to the next, it is caring about others.  Caring for my family, my friends, my Compassion children, my dog, my church, my God.  It’s what I do, and I hope that never changes.)

What verbs enable your nouns?