A Cat by Any Other Name

AS A CHILD, I WOULD REPEAT certain words over and over again—piano, nine—until the words lost all meaning and became simply a sequence of sounds. I’d stare at my hand for so long that it no longer appeared to be “mine,” or even a hand. It was a fascinating object. I’d lie on the lawn and look up at the sky, and I’d wonder whether the color I called blue was the same color my friend David saw when he used that word to describe the same patch of sky.

Many of us have these childhood experiences, yet in adulthood,