Lament

I know exactly what the word means.  I just haven't used it in a while.  Saturday night, though, I found myself in a Mexican funeral home to mourn with one of my co-workers, the loss of her father.

 

I know so little Spanish, that I hardly could imagine what string of words to construct that would reach her ears with tact and sincerity.  The only thing I could think of was, "lo siento," which is one of my standard phrases down here since I'm always saying or doing something wrong.  No. That wouldn't do.

 

Luckily, my administrator walked in right behind us.  As quietly as I could, I mumbled, "How do you say, 'I'm sorry for your loss?'"  I know Lupita would understand my pathetic predicament and know exactly what to tell me since she is a native Spanish speaker, and one of the most gracious people I have ever met.

 

"Lamento su perdida," she whispered back into my ear.  I both started immediately to try to memorize my new phrase and began contemplating the word "lament."  We don't use it often where I'm from.  We know what it means, just like we know what a Northerner means when they say "pop," or "soda".  It just isn't in our most commonly uttered word list.

 

The more I mulled the word over, though, the more mournful and significant it became.  I mean, how pitiful must a situation be for one to find it "lamentable"?

 

Really though, we could find such situations every day.  We just choose all too often to ignore them.  Oh, let us lament the brokenness around us!  Maybe then we'll finally be moved to want to do something about it.

 

-Holly