Wednesday's Word -- Circumstance

I actually can't believe I haven't dissected this word yet.  Here are a few thoughts.  The image at left may strike you as a bit beautiful mind-ish, but I'm not developing any grand conspiracy theories, rest assured.  Oh so many years ago, my 6th grade social studies teacher, Mr. Grande, introduced our class to the art of "webbing," as he called it.  A smallish, oldish man with a little mustache and lots of spunk, he would take his chalk, start with one word in the center of the blackboard enclosed in a vigorous circle, and we were off.  Any words and ideas associated with that first word would be added to the web.  Sometimes these webs would even, by necessity, jump and continue to blackboards on adjacent walls, because they could not be contained on one.  I recall some mocking of the webbing, but I actually loved it.

"Circumstance" is "a condition or fact attending an event and having some bearing on it."  Now that's vague and broad, isn't it?  A "circumstance" is "a determining or modifying factor."  Circumstance adds context.  Circumstance provides the rest of the story.  Circumstance is the sum of its parts, parts that are often "beyond willful control."  The word comes (interestingly, like so many of my favorite words) from the Indo-European Root *sta, meaning to stand.  "Circumstance" is literally "to stand around."  (circum- meaning around + stance, meaning stand.)

I don't know about you, but that just fits.  My circumstances often leave me stranded, standing around, waiting for a ride out of town.