Dataclysm by Christian Rudder5/26/2023 ![]() ![]() But it seems to also mean, rather, the very opposite - extra-ordinary as in possessing an extra helping of ordinary. I’ve become particularly fascinated by the extraordinary part of “extraordinary ability.” At first glance, it implies exceptional, above-and-beyond-the-ordinary ability. As cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz elegantly put it, “when you look closely at anything familiar, it transmogrifies into something unfamiliar.” ![]() Any phrase turned over and over in one’s mind eventually becomes a sort of semantic puree vacant of meaning, almost nonsensical. In the meantime, I have grown intimately familiar with the phrase itself - extraordinary ability. ![]() ![]() “Currently,” of course, is a relative term in any government system - it has been more than two years since I got on this hamster wheel of violent and violating bureaucracy. After spending the entirety of my adult life as a noncitizen immigrant in America, perpetually toiling at the mercy of various visas, I am currently applying for something known as an “extraordinary ability green card” - a document granted to people whose contributions to culture the government deems valuable enough to offer them a slice of the American Dream or, at the very least, to make their lives a little easier by letting them stay in the country and continue to make said contributions with a little more dignity and peace of mind. ![]()
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