the 7 meanings of forge

Here’s why words are great. Well, here’s one example anyway.

I had been thinking about how we must each forge our way. And about pushing every day to do a little more, and achieve some progress forward. How there are a shitload of nicey-nice quotes out there about the matter, but when it’s happening to you, in your life… frankly, it’s bloody challenging. It is. It’s no popcorn-and-Netflix marathon. It’s growing pains, difficulty and doubt. Which makes you feel like maybe you’re not on the right track. But it actually means, even more so, that you are.

Which is a real bother. Because once you realize you’re on to something good, you start to find you’ll have less time for Netflix. And well, Arrested Development. You know.

Anywhats. As often is the case when I’m looking something up in the dictionary, I pass by other words and get sidetracked. Like I did the other day when flipping through and landed on “forge.” I found 7 definitions. Surprising. And not surprising, as the dictionary often is.

Here they are:

1 : a furnace or a shop with its furnace where metal is heated and wrought

2 : a : to form (as metal) by heating and hammering

b : to form (metal) by a mechanical or hydraulic press with or without heat

3 : to make or imitate falsely especially with intent to defraud: counterfeit

4 : to form or bring into being especially by an expenditure of effort

5 : to move forward slowly and steadily

6 : to move with a sudden increase of speed and power

7 : Bonus medical definition: of a horse : to make a clicking noise by overreaching so that a hind shoe hits a fore shoe

Well, alright then.

This is what I took away:

-At no point is forging particularly easy and work-free.

-Hammering or beating is often a part of the process (I think we’ve all had those days).

-Sometimes it’s slow and steady, and sometimes it’s light years in a month.

-Some just fake it.

-And lastly, most words in the English language come equipped with a bonus medical definition pertaining in no way to the twenty other definitions that word offers. (I am basing this solely on this example, but I feel like I’m right about this one.)

I was a bit surprised that number 6 counted, actually. I had always associated forging with slow, monotonous progress. But I was glad to know those winning bursts also count toward the bigger picture. Somehow this makes them seem less like luck, and more like reward.

So count those wins, kiddos. And count those slow days, too. Count those punches in the gut, and those face plants, those minor victories, and those private freak out dances you do in hallways or parking structures when something thrilling happens. Hang on to those people who make you better, who know what you’re really capable of, and are willing to sit on the ground and eat chips with you when you trip and fall. Admire yourself for even trying. You came into this world fighting for your very life and breath. And you owe it to that moment to relentlessly pursue those very things, one overreaching hind shoe at a time.

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