An Unexpected Lesson

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In recent years I have come to appreciate the convenience of modern technology. Unfamiliar words used to require stepping away from my cozy seat to find a dictionary or encyclopedia. I’m basically a lazy person so it was rare that I would make the effort. Now between hyperlinks on my Kindle, the Merriam Webster App on my smart phone and, of course, the ever-popular Google it is much easier to expunge my ignorance. If you read the discussion I began yesterday, you’ll know that I’m reading my way through Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. If you’ve ever read ANY of L. M. Montgomery’s writing you’ll know that she loves both big words and lengthy descriptions and since she wrote the first of the Anne books over a hundred years ago it makes sense that some of her vocabulary is a bit archaic (aside from the fact that I read somewhere that a hundred years ago the average person had a much larger vocabulary than the average person of today has. Hmmmm...I wonder what L.M. would have made of the term “smartphone.” But I digress). Yesteday evening I encountered the sentence “It was still very sweet with dear flowers. There were still plenty of June lilies, as Diana called the narcissi.” Hang on a minute, what IS a june lily...and what does a narcissus actually look like. Google to the rescue. I looked up narcissus and shook my head in disbelief. I then ran a search on june lillies and ended up being referred back to the Anne of Green Gables book. Sometimes my own ignorance astounds me. My yard abounds with narcissi every spring...though around here they are long gone by the time June rolls around. So tell me, do YOU know what a narcissus looks like?