Stand

Once in a while, I find it amusing and occasionally edifying to meditate on a single word in the only language I know half-well (to my regret I do not have felicity in my mother tongue – Hindi – and this has left not only my education woefully incomplete but has cut me off from the deepest form of self-expression that a human being has). Take “stand”. Consider “I cannot stand him!” What does she mean? That he doesn't “sit well” with her? Not just that. She cannot bear to even have a standing arm-length conversation with him. In this context it would seem that “sit” is a superior position to “stand”. Now consider “to stand for an election” and compare it with say “sitting MP”. Seems to me that we human beings, at least the ones who think in English, consider sitting to be the just reward for the exertion of standing. In fact in today’s lexicon very often it is “running for an election” and when sales stop growing your progress as a sales manager “stands still”. Seems to me that we have further demoted “stand”- from an exertion that will be rewarded to a state of decay. What about “they also serve who stand and wait”? So? Who want to be an “also” in today’s hyper competitive world? And “wait”? Come on! Go get a life! Sometimes “stand” can be funny too. I got a snigger from my friends at the local club when I presented a particularly pompous gentleman as “a long-standing member”. Get it?