A lot of terms come to mind but the one that triggered this thought last weekend and again this morning are terms related to the world of Finance. Terms such as:
Debt
Asset
Liability
Capital
Value
Risk
Perhaps and surely my own hermeneutics come in to play here as I have spent a significant portion of my career helping define science to regulate the financial markets post-2008 crisis. But the fact remains, Finance is much bigger than the FSI headquartered in some of the cities in the world, one of which I happen to live in i.e. London.
The b is silent is Debt. The reason why I feel compelled to start with this statement is that many people who practice in English fluently and flawlessly, they still might pronounce the b in debt. This only tells me one thing. Debt is one of those topics that is seldom talked about. This is at least the case in Western Europe where I grew up.
In other words, it takes mastery and courage of one’s life to be able to talk freely about one’s debt. Debt may of course be monetary and may be emotional. I’m sure there are more types of debt out there because what debt captures as a term is a fairly abstract and generic concept.
Directionality in debt matters and debt is somehow about reversing the directions of edges between two nodes in a graph. If two individuals have started a relationship together and one of them gets sick, the other individual may have to spend more energy and power to attend to their sick friend. In my world, this changes something in the balance of the relationship as perceived by the individual who received care.
Not that the carer would expect anything in return, but the fact remains, one has proven something to the other. Is the one receiving the care required to reciprocate in the exact same manner or at all?
I’d be happy to get some feedback on the concepts thrown around here so I can spend a little bit more time carving out more terms.
One that I really like to discuss are Privilege and Ice…
Stay tuned for more…
I also just started my Threads (I know…) But the interface seems writer-friendly.