Roots

By Jennifer Schneider

When the winner of this year’s National Spelling Bee was asked if he had any secrets or strategies for success, he said he’d study the roots, roots of words of course, so that if he didn’t know the meaning of a word, he’d be able to figure it out. Words like “zwitterion” and “schistorrhachis”. He is fourteen, yet somehow seems to know more about solving puzzles than many three, four, and five times as old. He won on the same evening the debt limit ceiling was crumbling. Henny Penny, who always feared the sky might be falling, would be relieved, relieved to know a compromise – a deal of sorts – was drawn. Eyes on the sky. Ceilings the talk of morning, noon, and night. Now, I think, thanks to the fourteen-year-old champion, that perhaps they’ve all been focusing on the wrong things. Roofs instead of roots. Ticking clocks instead of building blocks. Shrugs instead of hugs. Winning wars instead of decoding words – the blocks on which words / deals / worlds are built, then held. The Spelling Bee both flashback and future focused. Contestants armed with new techniques to test all forms of intelligence. 

It’s no surprise that the champion’s winning word – psammophile – triple checked, spelled correctly of course, refers to an organism that prefers or thrives in sandy soils. Nutrient rich. As the word puzzle was presented, Dev waited. Waited patiently, then asked for all available information. Even information that was unneeded. Perhaps to stall. Perhaps to solidify. Perhaps to understand. The definition. The part of speech. The orthography. Use in a sentence. Fourteen young years of patient planning played its role in Dev’s destiny. No one had to read any palm lines – “chiromancy” another of the evening’s charades. Someone who tells fortunes using lines on the palm of a hand, another word spelled correctly on the path to victory / to recognize the genuine authenticity on stage. As Dev completed his turn, Charlotte, knowing she’d take second place, immediately showered him with a big hug. Collaborative perspectives. Movers of the House and Senate, rooted in wars of fictional worlds, take note.