You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language, and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett, and grant the emails and phone calls are still pouring in.

Every once in a while, we have a conversation on this show that prompts so much response.

And I tell you, it's like shoveling snow in a blizzard.

Oh, I think I know the call you're referring to. This is the middle emotion call, right?

Yeah, I never expected it to produce so much response, but this was the call from John

in Bismarck, North Dakota.

And he was looking for a term that specifies the emotion that's halfway between being deeply

depressed and being euphoric. What is right there at that midpoint?

And Grant, I don't know why, but people responded to that, like you wouldn't believe.

So much thought and care was put into these responses.

I know we both really appreciate that.

Indeed, and speaking of thought and care, here's a wonderful one from Amy in Libraville,

Gabon. She writes,

My first thought was placid, like a smooth lake without ripples.

If you look at the ebb and flow of emotions, you see waves,

riding the high waves of elation and crouching under the crushing waves of depression.

But then as Amy thought about it more in her email, she wasn't totally sold on the word

placid herself. And then she said, maybe the right word is still.

She said, if you look at a lake with no ripples, it is still.

If you're without emotional ripple, you are still.

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