Yesterday, November 13th was
World Kindness Day
Care: attention, consideration… or anxiety.
Don’t care didn’t care
Don’t care was wild
Don’t care stole plum and pear
Like any beggar’s child.
Don’t care was made to care
Don’t care was hung
Don’t care was put in a pot
And boiled till he was done."
Don’t care was made to care, so goes the old nursery rhyme, a cautionary tale for grumpy children tired of being told what to do by adults.
Care is a confusingly flexible word. Its many faces occupy a range of emotions encompassing both happiness and grief: We're careful, careless, and carefree. We take care of, are full of care, and sometimes we couldn't care less. Each began with the old English Korean, which is related both to the old High German, “carla” to grieve or lament, and to the Viking word core meaning sickbed.
The earliest emotional state that care described was to do with sadness and ailing. To be in care, in the 11th Century, was to be in a state of unease, meaning insecure or anxious.
“Clothing of care” used to be a synonym for “mourning dress”, the clothes you would wear when you are in mourning. These days that would be something in black. “To be in mourning” is to follow some costumes and traditions following the death of someone, when you feel a specific kind of sadness (“estar em luto”, in Portuguese).
These days care is more commonly linked to being concerned or wanting to protect someone or something so that nothing bad will happen to them, or that they have time to recover:
“I am going to take care of you and make sure you get home alright.”
“She took care of my wounds when I fell off my bike.”
In Britain, the phrase “to be in care” is linked to living temporarily with a foster, or replacement family, when a child’s parents are, for whatever reason, unable to look after them:
“His mother was a single mother, and he was placed in care when she went into prison”.
Take care of yourself and each other,
Because I care for you.
Ta-ra! (goodbye, in colloquial North British English)
professor-bruce
Adapted from Susie Dent's "An Emotional Dictionary".
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