Index Card Redivivus
A daily practice
I will get to that word, redivivus, in a minute. It was a new one on me and that is always a treat. Apparently, it’s new to Substack, too, as the app is continuing to draw a dotted red line beneath it.
As this new year approached, I was considering starting some kind of daily practice. I knew I wanted to do something, but could not figure out what. Once upon a time I decided to write a poem a day for 49 days, in honor of my poet friend who died at 49. Just because I loved doing it, I continued well past the 49 days and even past 365 days. You can find the poems here. Another year, I kept a journal of my daily walks, in which I wrote a little about each day’s walk and taped into the book a bit of something that I found—a leaf or some other bit of nature. And then, too, a friend gifted me the gorgeous book, Still—The Art of Noticing, by Mary Jo Hoffman. Mary Jo adopted a daily practice of photographing some found object and posting it every day, and she has written eloquently about that.
I toyed with several ideas and finally settled on doing some kind of art on an index card every day. Any kind of art, so that I am not tied to a particular medium. I had tried drawing once before, but my heart wasn’t in it. Having settled on index cards, I have been picturing in my mind the fat stack of art-filled cards I will have by the end of the year. Fun! And I have continued every day since January 1.
So now you’re wondering, are you ever going to get to that word? Okay, okay! I posted my favorite index card art on Facebook the other day, and told about my daily practice. The lovely and elegant retired English professor whom I have known for many years commented, “Ah, the index card redivivus!” Whoa! Had she misspelled, did Facebook take liberties, or is that a real word? I looked it up. According to Oxford Languages, it means “Come back to life; reborn.” Excellent! A wonderful new-to-me word! Here’s the everyday phrase Oxford used to illustrate its use: "one is tempted to think of Poussin as a sort of Titian redivivus.” Well! I don’t know much about Poussin, but I got the gist from the definition.
Some new words, I feel, are relatively useless. Their meanings are too obscure or specific to sprinkle into one’s writing or speech. These show up in Dictionary’s Word of the Day from time to time. Those, I don’t care to know. But redivivus! Now there’s a great word. Right up there with penultimate (second to last), which I use often and whose meaning I have taught to all of my piano kids, once they’ve reached a certain age. Very useful. “Can you play that penultimate measure once again for me, please?”
I learned the two-word Latin phrase vade mecum from another friend: “a handbook or guide that is kept constantly at hand for consultation.” Then I was delighted to learn that Billy Collins has a lovely short poem by that title: “I want the scissors to be sharp/ and the table perfectly level/ when you cut me out of my life/ and paste me in that book you always carry.” (from Sailing Alone Around the Room)
Now you may think that I’ve wandered rather wildly away from the topic of Index Card Art, but there you would be wrong. This was my plan all along. Yes, I’m doing a rewarding daily practice of making tiny art and yes, too, I’m happily adding new and interesting words to my vocabulary at all times, and yes, I like to regale you, lovely reader, with new words, as well. Maybe not all of you find this one new, certainly not my retired English professor friend, but I bet many of you. So there you are—a gift.
Index Card Redivivus. My 2025 daily practice underway.
(And just look at the cool friends I have—the friend who gave the book, the friend who gave the word, the friend who gave the phrase. I am so lucky.)
“Dailiness takes all the pressure off any given day. There are no important or unimportant days. There is just one day after another. There’s nothing you have to do today but show up. If you don’t finish, or don’t do your best work, or screw up completely, guess what? You have tomorrow.” - Mary Jo Hoffman
“Anyone who knew the word slattern was worth cultivating as a friend.” - Alan Bradley
“Will I have to use a dictionary to read your book?" asked Mrs. Dodypol. "It depends," says I, "how much you used the dictionary before you read it.” - Alexander Theroux
“Few activities are as delightful as learning new vocabulary.” - Tim Gunn
Check out the Ampersand Cards website for my cards and art. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to share. And if someone shared this one with you, click the button below to subscribe for free. Finally, you'll find all my poems here.
Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the "merry thoughts."