Punt Kick

Cover image for the Punt Kick word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Punt Kick

n.
a quiet jolt of recognition that it’s time to become a better version of yourself, sensing that all the strategies that brought you this far are no longer working—that it’s not enough anymore to be cute or nice or righteous or tough—as if you’ve now entered a new phase in the game of life, moving forward with a completely different token.

Dutch puntstuk, railway frog, which is the part of a railway switch where two rails intersect. Sometimes you can feel a little kick when your train passes over it, as if the world is trying to signal you’re missing a turn, having traveled too far on the same old track.

Keyframe

a large rock in the water with emanating ripples

Attriage

Cover image for the Attriage word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Present-Tense

a close-up of a stopwatch

Rialtoscuro

a blurry image of a light source

Elsewise

Cover image for the Elsewise word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Star-Stuck

a man walking towards a door with a large question mark