Sondrio is a northern Italian town nestled among the Alps in Valtellina. I visited with my family on a dreary November afternoon. There were few others out and about but the people we did see were living their own full lives and being their own conscious selves. The name Sondrio makes me think of sonder. I’m not sure what the etymology of Sondrio is but I know it’s not sonder because that’s a “made up” word.
sonder
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.
But all words are made up, at some point or other. A word exists if we agree to use it and connect it to a meaning. Inspired by The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, I’m going to make up my own. Here are some words that my photographs in this album make me think of. They may be useful in Sondrio, and elsewhere. Use them freely.
jand (dj-and)
n. Surprise felt upon entering a quiet corner of the city, lost in thought, and realizing that you are not actually alone.
stlingle (stlin-guh-l)
n. A slight discomfort on the bottoms of your feet felt while walking on uneven cobblestones wearing thinly soled shoes.
millingor (mil-in-gohr)
n. The feeling that a statue is watching you as you walk away and willing you to come back to lay offerings at its pedestal.
oroclaustrophobe (aw-ro-klaw-struh-fohb)
n. Someone who feels short of breath while in a town surrounded on all sides by mountains.
blizinly (bliz-in-lee)
adj. The manner in which an inanimate piece of mail moves through spacetime, passing through various hands and crossing the world to its destination.
blizinthe (bliz-inth)
n. The realization and sadness that you can never know the intricacies of the journey of a single piece of mail that has arrived in your mailbox.
archintegrate (ark-in-ti-greyt)
v. To slowly walk into the wall of a building and integrate your atoms into its fiber until you become part of the architecture.
aquilision (ak-weh-leh-shun)
n. Feeling completely overwhelmed by the water cycle and in awe of water molecules and their essential role.
geobsession (gee-uhb-sesh-uhn)
n. A crushing desire to know exactly how many rocks there are on the planet.
preflusion (preh-floo-shun)
n. A view obscured by a fog, but you can’t quite tell if the fog is atmospheric or mental.
SONDRIO, ITALY
de la Rouviere, Niel. 2013. “The Curious Case of the Word ‘Sonder.'” http://nieldlr.com/2013/06/curious-case-word-sonder.html
Koenig, John. 2013. “Sonder.” The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/23536922667/sonder.