Tales of the Talking Tiger

Bruce Willis and his team of commandos had parachuted into a mission in Nigeria to evacuate an American doctor, two nuns and a priest. When the doctor refused to leave without the nationals under her care, Willis disobeyed orders from above, and an hour and a half later brought them all to safety on a dangerous journey through the jungle and arriving at the Cameroon border.

In one of the last scenes of the film, the American doctor turns to Willis (who at this stage looks more dead than alive) and says ‘thank you’. These two words seemed so inadequate and unable to describe the depths of what Willis had actually done. Without him, their town would have been razed to the ground, the women raped and everyone killed.

Yet the same two words can be used to express gratitude for passing the salt, picking up milk on the way home from work, or inviting me out for a meal.

We have so many words in English, yet one of the most important concepts has such an inadequate number of ways to be expressed.