“A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

The English language has hundreds of thousands of words. These words have work to do. They take their places in the dictionary, ready to serve, wherever and whenever you need them. Some are deployed often. Others only stand and wait.

This week we’ve summoned some of the words who have been patiently waiting for their turn in the dusty pages of the dictionary. Say hello to them. Put them to work. They are handy. They are happy to serve. They will do whatever you ask them to do, but please use them only for the good.

agathism

PRONUNCIATION:

(A-guh-thiz-uhm) 

MEANING:

noun: The doctrine that, in the end, all things tend toward good.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek agathos (good), which also gave us agathokakological and the name Agatha. Earliest documented use: 1830.

NOTES:

An optimist would say that everything is for the best. An agathist, on the other hand, would say that what’s happening right now may be unfortunate or evil, but, ultimately, it will all end well. For optimists (and pessimists) from fiction who became words, see here and here.

USAGE:

“His stubbornness and agathism have been an inspiration to me. I don’t naturally have his persistence. So I often ask my mother to put him on the phone when I am struggling with something. It doesn’t matter what the issue is or that he can’t possibly know the future. I just want to hear his standard line, the only setting he has: Everything will be OK in the end.”
Mieke Eerkens; All Ships Follow Me; Picador; 2019.” (From the website, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox/FMfcgzGmtDxFfZMbTTpplrbbLqfDBfDr, accessed 12-27-2021.)

I love Anu Garg! Never met the man, but I still love him! Why? Because, like me, he is a lover and cherisher of words.

Take the word for today, for example: “agathism”. What a wonderful word! Believing that things will turn out for the good in the end.

In a time of a deadly pandemic, widespread political vitriol and oppression, racism, greed, climate change and various other deadly goings-on, it may or may not be true that all things will ultimately work out for the good. But even if it’s just a myth, it might be a good one to believe. If we simply give in and marinate in the sludge of our current real and serious problems, we will simply become part of the problems.

I’ve been struggling here of late with depression that borders on despair. No more! I will practice agathism.

Agathism is biblical, too. The Bible does not sugarcoat the human situation. One of the things I really hate about the Bible is its in-your-face realism about human nature.

Yet the Bible also has this crazy—and seemingly contradictory—idea that everything is going to turn out well after all.

No, not for everyone. That’s true. But there is some good news even with regard to that. In the second letter of Peter, he writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, English Standard Version)

What?! God wants everybody to be saved?!

Yep. If we choose not to be saved, that is our decision. And God will respect our decision. He won’t like it, but he will respect it.

The last of the book of the Christian Bible is called Revelation. In it, there is a lot of evil and violence, most of it caused by human beings. Yes, some of the violence is attributed to God, but God’s violence is a response to human violence.

But the book ends with a vision of a heavenly city that is full of peace, beauty, and joy. This is because the city is full of God’s presence. And it is full of many people, too.

The story goes that Billy Graham was once asked by a gaggle of reporters if he was an optimist or a pessimist. “I am an optimist,” Graham replied. There were lots of bad things going on the world right then. Imagine that! So, one of the reporters asked a follow-up question: “How can you be an optimist, considering all the horrible things that are going on right now.”

Graham’s answer is a classic. “I’ve read the last page of the Bible, and I know how it all turns out.”

How about closing out this horrible year and beginning the next with an agathistic attitude? I think I’ll make a stab at it. Who knows? Perhaps my attempts will turn out well in the end?