Article May 7, 2012 Issue

Learning the language of Spirit

Brian Asher

“What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. And what do you call someone who speaks one language? American!”

As an American working in Brazil, I found my friend’s little joke edgy but often true. He always tells me that I am “really different” from all the Americans he knows because I always ask him questions about words in Portuguese and write down his answers on a little notepad I carry with me, constantly reviewing and repeating the new words, expressions, or grammar. I’ve spent the last four years striving to become fluent in Spanish and, later, Portuguese.

One day, as I sat in a plastic chair in my apartment in downtown Curitiba, I thought to myself how similar the practice of Christian Science is to learning a foreign language. Mary Baker Eddy wrote: “Christian Science is not an exception to the general rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct line. One cannot scatter his fire, and at the same time hit the mark” (Science and Health, p. 457). It seems to me that qualities such as mental activeness, self-discipline, and expectancy—as well as love for others—are the keys to success.