#Trobriand Islander's have no word for “want” “when” “worry”

[remembertheplunge]

No words for "when" "want" or "worry"

June 10, 2007.  5:22pm Sunday

The TV news show “60 minutes” had a segment on the language of the people of the Trobriand Islands. The Trobiand Islanders have no word in their language for “when”“want” or “worry”.

 If asked "How old are you?" They don’t know.

There is no word for “Hello”

No word for “good bye”.

They do have words for give and take. But, no word for “want”.

They have no need for things. They are nomadic.

Just before the Trobriand Islander story, there was a story about a really rich guy who was mean to his employees. He yelled at them. Every word was “want”, “when”, “worry”. Age on his forehead. Full of hellos and good byes.

My partner Jim got a check for $98,000 plus as his share of his parent’s estate. . Jim is angry. Feels nothing. 

One of Jim’s two brothers got $50,000 more than Jim. Jim now has no reason to contact his brothers. I agree. They were horrible through this division of the estate process. A lot of money went to lawyers. Odd. Outside of memory and emotion, there is no connection between them anymore. No hello. No good bye. No want. No worry. No when.

End of this part of the entry

Jim was my partner of 12 years. He and his brothers got into a legal battle over their parent’s estate after their mother died in 2005.

Later, a similar situation happened in my family. My sister Zoe and I were disinherited by our mother in 2011. We learned about it after her death in 2012. Our younger brother and his wife and her son and his wife inherited everything. My brother and I have never spoken again. We never  will speak. No good bye. No hello. 

Jim and his family were good teachers. They showed me this can happen. This is sometimes part of the family experience. 

“This is what white people do to each other”. This is a line from the 2019 movie “The Last Black Man in San Fransisco”. A young black man desperately wants to own a victorian house in San Fransisco's Filmore district. An elderly couple lives there now, but, are forced to leave because of an inheritance battle.The young black man says to his friend “This is what white people do to each other”.That one line, more than any other, has helped my through the desolate landscape of being disinherited.