The Daily Word

for February 5, 2021

by Gwyn English Nielsen

transmogrify - verb - to segue vastly from one state of being to another

In the interim between book club selections, I am reading Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, a brief yet profound fairy tale as intellectuals have chosen to interpret it on several levels. Years ago, when my command of the language was more proficient, I read the first few pages in German, found it a bit too bizarre and picked up Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle instead. I am, at present, enjoying Kafka's work especially since it can be considered an opportune allegory. In case you have never read The Metamorphosis, the protagonist, Gregor inexplicably transmogrifies from an eager-to-please salesman into a caterpillar overnight, leaving his parents, sister, maid, and boss in a state of horror and stupefaction at his unlikely evolution. 

Kafka's story, written in the early 1900s before the Spanish flu, has contemporary relevance: Like Gregor's transfiguration, the entire pandemic has been transformative as it has changed the way we live our lives overnight. But also like Gregor, the caterpillar, who is able to muster tenacity, adjusting to his new body and even delighting in some of his new abilities, such as crawling upside down on the ceiling, we have made concessions, and some of us have not given up the struggle to latch on to a degree of normalcy. We, Gregor included, have refused to be vanquished because we are human and insist on self-preservation. However, unlike Gregor who has not gotten to this point quite yet, we are learning that the preservation of others' lives is just as important. 

I'll leave you with words to the wise: Transmogrify your attitude if it needs conversion. 

Enjoy the weekend!

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