La Victoire, René Magritte
Dear Freunde,
No, Zerrissenheit is not a new subdivision on the edge of town, built on the bluff overlooking the meadow and riverbank you used to play in, but there is some overlap, some saliency. "Torn-to-pieces-hood" is how Wm. James defines the word in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea. The Collins dictionary reports it is a "disunity," an "inner conflict."
I first met the word in Gift From the Sea, so that is the definition I have been lumbering and laboring under for years. It is a lovely book; I hope you have already read it.
In any event, it is my new favorite German word. My previous favorite German word was Torschlusspanik. I think I am going to wean myself off of panik, panic, and step into the warm oblivion of torn to pieces. I feel like one can only feel bad about doors closing for so long, you know? After enough doors close, you start not care so much about the ones that are about to close: "let 'em close," you say, defiantly; "I never wanted through you anyway, you big dumb door!"
