n. the desire to care less about things; to figure out a way to relax your grip on your life and hold it loosely and playfully, keeping it in the air like a volleyball, with quick and fleeting interventions, bouncing freely in the hands of trusted friends, always in play.
Italian libero, free. A libero is a position on a volleyball team that can move at greater liberty than other players, subbing freely and without permission, with an emphasis on keeping the ball in play. Pronounced "lib-er-oh-sis."
n. a caricature of yourself that went out of date years ago, though nobody around you seems to have noticed.
Italian tipi fissi, "fixed types," the stock characters in commedia dell'arte masked improvisational theater. Pronounced "tip-uh-fis."
adj. the wish that the modern world felt as epic as the one depicted in old stories and folktales—a place of tragedy and transcendence, of oaths and omens and fates, where everyday life felt like a quest for glory, a mythic bond with an ancient past, or a battle for survival against a clear enemy, rather than an open-ended parlor game where all the rules are made up and the points don't matter.
From ring, a key element in many sagas and myths + -lorn, sorely missing. Pronounced "ring-lawrn."
adj. longing to disappear completely; to melt into a crowd and become invisible, so you can take in the world without having to take part in it—free to wander through conversations without ever leaving footprints, free to dive deep into things without worrying about making a splash.
From slip, to move or fly away in secret + fast, fortified against attack.