GATR Digest #1 | Health, Whole, Uninjured & Good Omen

The etymology, ontology, history, etc.

Hello Other Worlds,

I know in my last digest video I say the next words I’m going to address are “Humanity, Child, Adult and Elder.” That was my plan and is still a plan as far as future words are concerned.

However, Health has really been calling to me as a word. Originally, I thought I remembered that it was related to the word wealth, but it’s actually the other way around. I suspect that classism and the construction of Feudalism or Capitalism could have influenced this association: that one with wealth can afford better health.

We won’t be going down that philological rabbit hole in this digest. We’ll do a digest on the word wealth all by itself. Today, we talk about Health and its intrinsic association with the word and the concept of Omens.

Now, it doesn’t always turn out this way etymologically speaking. For example, just because Will’s etymology means “Wish, Will and Choose” doesn’t mean that Wish or Choose’s etymology will mean “Will.” I believe there are several reasons for this that I am not educated enough to tell you in technical details.

That being acknowledged, I suspect it’s because Proto-Indo-European is a blanket word for any of the dialects being spoken across the continents of modern-day Europe and Asia.

Some etymological roots are sense meanings in the same way that we cannot translate all words from one language to another because not all meanings carry over. We get as close to the parallel or reciprocal meanings as possible using the language and words we do have in the language we are translating into and from.

Other etymological roots showcase that some meanings—and therefore some words—have ALWAYS been a team or associated. We will be talking about a few such words in this digest.

To Be “Healthy”

A billion-dollar objective on our world, since most of us are not healthy. This isn’t so much a natural occurrence as it is of systemic design. We know that Capitalism requires that some lack, we know that Feudalism requires others to relinquish their authority, and we know that Monarchy requires people to give over their autonomy into the hands of others who cannot, actually or existentially, even take it on.

Identity is personal. It’s a one-to-one experience when you incarnate on Earth. Even if you’re twins, conjoined, or in a cult. You belong to yourself EXISTENTIALLY because nobody else takes up the time and space coordinates of yourself other than yourself until you no longer have a self that is incarnate.

Though we know that on Earth we identify selfhood with a body, obviously Patriarchy, Anti-Blackness, Queerphobia and Ableism have led to many people who have their own bodies not being lawfully classified as selves, autonomous beings, or even as people at all. Which is plenty to consider before even getting to the ontological and philosophical implications of only associating life, identity and consciousness with a physical human body.

That being acknowledged, there is the Invention of Humanity Reality and there is the Existential Reality.

At Get At The Root we acknowledge all relevant realities but we reserve judgment for the Existential Reality before any other. And by “we,” I of course mean myself and you, if you agree with me; but, even if you don’t, I most certainly mean myself and all the I’s of me I have been and will be in addition to this present me who is typing.

So, it goes with saying that there are levels and dimensions to the concept and understanding of health. Even with the Globalization of White cisheteropatriarchy—which is inherently classist because it has climbed upon the backs of all previous and more niche oppressions that arose before it—there are continental, cultural and historical differences around health.

This Bird Has A Lot of Bones

One can FEEL whole and not BE healthy. One can FEEL healthy and not BE whole. But can one BE healthy and not FEEL whole? Or BE whole and not FEEL healthy?

The reason there’s not an absolute answer to the above is that human beings love to compartmentalize things. For instance, you can be “PHYSICALLY healthy” and not feel “EMOTIONALLY whole.” If we define ourselves by compartmentalizing our identity or well-being, we can always find ways to not perceive ourselves as total.

Which takes me back to last month’s digest about “Sin.” Because if the one thing you have no control over (e.g. BEING) is framed as your primary problem on an existential level, how can you ever be your complete self? We have to validate ourselves to recognize ourselves. What we don’t validate about ourselves, we will never be able to recognize.

If you believe in sin, can you ever be whole while incarnate?

Now that I’m thinking about it, a lot of the meaning of healthiness and wholeness is attributed to humanity posthumously. Much is promised after death in all the Abrahamic religions and certainly in Buddhism and other faith practices.

As I pointed out in last month’s digest regarding nihilism and the concept of “Original Sin” and sin in general—there is an underlying belief that ties them all together and that is that there is something wrong with being incarnate. Flesh and bones. Alive in this way.

All of this constructed and systemic suffering because of the mortification of flesh? All of this constructed and systemic suffering because the flesh can rot and wither away? All of this constructed and systemic suffering because one can be unhealthy?

Talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it!

[SIDEBAR:

I generated the image above by writing what you see in the caption below. I assume the AI reviews my writing and probably peeps my demographics from what I have informed Substack. I don’t mind this actually because 3 out of the 4 options they gave me were of brown people.

However, the coding is biased because in the center of the images, there were either always men, lighter-skinned women or blonde White women. Two images just had men of the full spectrum of pigmentation. None centered brown or darker-skinned women.

I write this so that my AI can learn how I organize visual and symbolic information]

The answers to the questions I pose above the AI-generated image will not be answered in just one way. Various belief systems construct various understandings around and from the “Current Events” of things. By that I mean the who, what, when, where, why and how of things.

Some people believe access to good health is systemic, others believe in meritocracy, others still believe in curses and then there are those whose beliefs are wrapped up in all of those positions for a myriad of reasons that have developed from their unique experiences.

As someone who chooses to practice/follow Daoism and Ifa, I am not generally concerned with convincing anyone of anything. I share what I have come to understand because it was shared with me and I am able to construct my identity in positive, neutral and inclusive ways that allow me to provide myself with an existential experience that I both enjoy and appreciate the majority of the time.

That being said, that is me. That’s what gets me going. Other people are led, convinced and even galvanized by other things. Which is absolutely their prerogative and I understand that Existence supports them, myself and every other thing equally in our individuated understandings.

I am coming into this recognition in my life that the only way to lead is by example. Both through the living example that you are having full autonomy over your own nature; and through simulating examples, whether hypothetical or material, that help and allow others to understand the potential results (benefits and consequences) of their actions.

For the most part, the Invention of Humanity has not been socialized or systemically constructed to function without forcing things to be outside of their nature or their will. I am completely aware that there are those people, nations and things that will require and force others to be constricted or conscripted into unpreferred situations.

I am never denying the human reality. I am just also never denying the existential reality either. Which, for me, trumps the human reality in every way, shape and form simply because the existential reality allows for the human reality.

Essentially, the fact that humanity chooses to be delusional and induct generation after generation into what I call the “Cult of Deniability,” is a reflection of humanity and is not to be blamed on Existence itself. Nobody is making humanity act of fool but ourselves and each other.

The You in the Mirror!

I tried my very best, but because Health is such a hefty word I juuuust managed to get all the origin meanings into this video and was not able to do too much philological, sociological or ontological exposition.

So if you want more insight into why all these words have long been related, you will have to subscribe as a paying GATR newsletter member because after this video is where all the extrapolation is going to take place.

That being said, I did start recording my videos sideways so they look better on Substack and after I release the videos here I’ll just zoom in on social media. Imma stop catering to social media that doesn’t provide a good user experience (*cough—instagram—cough*).

TLDR;? Then peep the below too:

-th(2) is a “suffix forming nouns of action, state or quality from verbs or adjectives (such as depth, strength, truth).” -Th(2) gives “whole, uninjured and of good omen” movement, body and contextualization.

Okay, free subscribers, here is where we leave you. Take care!