Eugene

I have a wonderful friend who sent me Pink Martini's "Hey, Eugene." Hadn't heard of the song, but she did introduce me to Pink Martini a couple years ago. (If you're reading this, Jaimie---HELLO!)

Anyway, apart from Portland (our biggest city), there are only an even two dozen cities over 20,000 in population in the entire state. And ten of those are suburbs of Portland, itself clocking in at only a little over half a million. Second to Portland is Eugene, Oregon where 143,910 people on this planet have decided to live and move and have their being. There is little doubt that the minority were born in Eugene, but I am fairly certain that very few of them realize that the name of their city is all about birth.

Sorry, Limers---they are only counting incorporated towns and, as you could probably guess, Wagontire didn't make the cut with their two person population.

You know who used to live in Eugene? Ken Kesey, that's who. You know who else used to live in Eugene? Johnny Prefontaine, that's who.

So I got to thinking about the name, Eugene. Yes, it's Greek. But first, a few words about words.

Anytime you see the "eu" prefix, you can just go ahead and translate it as "good." Other words that come with the territory are "nice," "easy," "pleasant." Anything in that realm works. Like "eucalyptus,"---nice covering; "euthanasia,"---easy death; "eulogy,"---good word; "euphoria,"---pleasant bearing (phero means to carry or to bear, as in the weight of something), "eucharist,"---good grace (gift), "eutectics,"---good melting (potters know the eutectics of various glaze materials and often flux the glaze recipe such that things will melt at a higher or lower temperature in the kiln).

From the word, "eucharist" comes the word for thanks in Greek. If you want to say "thank you," you say: "Eucharisto." But it is not pronounced "you-kuh-rist-o." It is pronounced, ev-khat-ees-TOE." When you get to the "kha" part of the word, you want to sound like you are about to hock a loogie. It's a sort of throat-clearing from way back on the tongue that produces that "kha" sound (as well as loogies). The "u" in Greek is given a "v" sound, therefore the "eu" is pronounced "ev." And from that, you can pretty much figure out how "euangelios" becomes "evangelist" in our own tongue. The Good News---the Gospel---is "evangelion." Literally, a good message.

So in comes Eugene. Easy now, huh? You are betting that the "gene" portion has something to do with our word for "genetics." And you're correct. So knowing what the "eu" part of Eugene means, you can guess what Eugene really means. But first a few words about the words "genestheto" and "thelema."

The word for "will" (as in, To Will something to be) is "thelema." No, not Thelma. But it does sound a lot like it and so, who knows? In Greek you lengthen all the "O"s. In the Lord's Prayer, "genestheto to thelema sou" is: Thy will be done. Literally, "may it be born out [of] the will of you." It is in the genitive---"OF you." But it is not a reflexive verb, so don't worry. That would complicate things greatly.

Here are some Eugene related words: Generate, generation, genetics, genes, genealogy (and by the way, it's gene-AL-ogy, not gene-OL-ogy---one of the most mispronounced words in the language!), general---it's all about giving birth, making happen, bearing out, bodying forth, issuing from the womb of whatever.

Eugene. Nice birth. Easy birth. Well-born. You name it---if it's about coming about in a good and a positive way, then you've got a Eugene event.

In Russian, the name is pronounced "yevgenny" (hard "g" as in "Gawpo.") There is a poet named Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Some of you, no doubt, have heard of him. I came to his poems via his book "Stolen Apples." I liked the title because I stole some oranges from Sophie Rhorer's tree across the street once and went to confession for it when I had attained the age of reason: 7. Gotta love being Catholic. I generated ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys for my kakagenic idea.

When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he lays on them the notion that they need to resign themselves to what we, nowadays, refer to as the driving principle of: shit happens. Or, as I posted once, "Mierda Pasa." What does a General do except "make shit happen." Whatever that phrase "God's will" might mean, it sure doesn't mean anything that can be planned by us. "Genestheto to thelema sou" is not only in the dative case, it is in the subjunctive, thus rendering the whole thing: "That it might come about the will of you." There's this sense that, whatever does come about, might not be what we want to come about. It's a matter of thy, not my. And I hate that sometimes. This doesn't mean that whatever comes about, comes about as the will of God, either. But how we deal with whatever comes about---now that's what that part of the Lord's prayer is all about. You know: "God grant me the serenity, etcetera"? Does any of that ring a bell?

So, if good and caring people (such as you and me) discern what might happen to be the opposite of Eugene, namely, Kakagene (literally: Shitgene), then we need to fight to make it right; we need to take what comes and give birth to good by how we handle it. Whatever might come about, it is all we can do to pray that we will accept it as best we can and treat it as---Eugene.

Now for the entertainment portion of our program. I love this song. Crank it up. It has been viewed by nearly as many people as live in Corvallis, Oregon, just slightly north of....Eugene.