I’m tickled to be among the 1,000 — yes, you read that right — logophile contributors to A Rewording Life, a literary project conceived by Sheryl Gordon to raise awareness of and funds for dementia research. The book is now available, and the Toronto launch happens tonight!
Here’s a little background:
“With A Rewording Life, Sheryl Gordon brings clarity to obscure words, collaborates with over a thousand cool Canadians (Yann Martel, Jane Urquhart, Terry Fallis, Miriam Toews, Wayson Choy, Emma Donoghue, Linwood Barclay, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Kim Thúy, Craig Davidson, Shani Mootoo, Charlotte Gray, Measha Brueggergosman, Sass Jordan, Joel Plaskett, Colin Mochrie, Atom Egoyan, Mark Tewksbury, et al.), and raises money for dementia research.
“When Ms. Gordon saw her mother, Yolande, lose her words to dementia, she understood like never before that words have meaning. To honour her mom, she asked Canadians who make her life more rewarding to pen an indelible sentence for an abstruse, bemusing, or convoluted word; she chose words she tends to forget. She hopes to harness these scintillating sentences to help eradicate dementia.
“Interwoven amongst the plethora of contributions are eight heartfelt essays written by Ms. Gordon. The initial letters of her essay titles (a, d, e, i, m, n, t, e) spell dementia. She hopes readers can embrace this scattered concept. Confusion is, after all, the nature of this disease.”
To find out which word and example I contributed, well, you’ll just have to buy the book! How could any writer (or reader) resist dipping into this treasure trove of 1,000 new words? With A Rewording Life on your shelf, you’ll have a ready antidote to lethologica — something from which Sheryl told Descant Blog she suffers. Don’t we all!
For further information on this worthwhile project and how to purchase copies of A Rewording Life, visit www.arewordinglife.com.
Sheryl Gordon
SHERYL GORDON, founder and curator of A Rewording Life, has been a trainer and writer in the IT field and has taught ESL.